Growing Up Isles
by propertyofjanerizzoli
Summary: What starts as a typical family trip to London turns out to be a romantic, trip of a lifetime for Jane and Maura and the start of a new beginning for Hope and Constance. College Rizzles.
1. 90s Nostalgia and the Talk

**A/N: Hey, readers! This is meant to be a series of one-shots by request. I'll be taking requests for Jane/Maura and Hope/Constance, so if there's anything you want me to write for you, just leave it in the comments. :)**

Autumn had always been Maura's favorite time of the year. When she was a child, she and her mom would have apple cider in the park and－instead of jumping in piles of leaves like the other children－Maura would collect every color of leaf that she could find and press them into her scrapbook. That's when her mom taught her about the different seasons and why the leaves changed colors in the fall. Her mom had been the "science geek" while she was a kid and that same interest in science had been instilled in Maura. There was once a time when she had followed her mom everywhere, but everything in Maura's life had changed like the seasons and she was no longer a child and her mom was no longer a med student in her twenties. Her mom was now an accomplished OB/GYN and six weeks pregnant with her third child and Maura was a college freshman trying to balance her new relationship and pledging her mother's sorority.

...but after all the years that had passed, autumn was still Maura's favorite time of the year, albeit for a different reason now.

Maura was always close to her family, but this autumn was the first time she felt as if she had fit in with her peers. The girls in her pledge class were a tight-knit group and－from the start－they followed each other on social media and had dinner together at least a couple of nights a week to encourage each other throughout the pledge process. It was a far cry from what her mother Constance had told her about her own pledge class eighteen years ago in which almost half of the girls were catty and judged others based on how they looked and what they wore. Her pledge mom was kind and considerate of all the girls and checked in with them weekly to make sure the process wasn't overwhelming and Maura's Big Sis, a sophomore named Lauren, was just as interested in science as she was and gave her advice on what classes to take. Her time as a Kappa Gamma Phi pledge had been an enjoyable experience and with only three weeks left until Initiation, Maura was especially excited for the remainder of her pledge tasks－the next of which was the reason why she was at her house in Beacon Hill instead of at her BCU dorm room.

Her task was to learn about the history of Kappa Gamma Phi by interviewing a member of the sorority's executive board who had graduated more than ten years ago. Luckily for Maura, the person she was going to interview was at the same address as her.

There was a list of questions for Maura to choose from and, although she was expected to pick ten questions from the list and obtain photos of her mother from her sorority days, there were questions more important than 'What's your favorite Kappa Gamma Phi tradition' and 'What was the most romantic thing a fraternity guy ever did for you?' that Maura wanted to ask because, like Maura, Constance didn't have a boyfriend in college. Her mother, more than anyone, knew what it was like to hide one of the most important parts of herself from her sorority sisters. Homophobia was rampant in Greek-life organizations in the '90s and, although Maura knew the girls in her pledge class were different from her mother's, a part of her still feared that she would have to spend the next four years hiding who she was, which was why Maura sat nervous at the kitchen table during an interview that was supposed to be an enjoyable experience and help her learn about the history of the organization she was pledging.

"Do you have pictures of yourself as a pledge and as a senior?" Maura asked in hopes that seeing the incredibly '90s pictures of her mother would ease her mind.

"I was a freshman here. Gamma Epsilon class initiation night," Constance said as she handed a 4'" x 6" photo to Maura. In the photo was her mother at age eighteen in a short, white thin-strapped dress and white heels. There were pink balloons and streamers along the bannister of the staircase and she was holding a gift basket and a sign that said '_Welcome home, Connie.' _The sorority house still looked the same and it warmed Maura's heart to know that she would someday be living in that very house.

"I remember this sweet, beautiful girl," Maura's mom Hope said fondly as she looked at the picture along with Maura. "She tried on thirty dresses before choosing that one. Your mother was so nervous that night when she was getting ready."

"I wasn't nervous about being initiated," Constance pointed out. "I was ecstatic about Initiation. It meant the end of doing everything the older girls told me to do. If it was the middle of the night and one of the seniors called you and told you to buy her something at the 24-hour store, you absolutely had to do it and deliver it to her within a one-hour timeframe. The seniors had copies of our class schedule so they knew where we were at all times and they would show up outside the door of our classes to make sure we were wearing our pledge pins. There were dire consequences if we weren't. Plus, there was the night when they came into our dorm rooms, kidnapped us, and left us miles from campus and we'd have to find our way home in our pajamas and no money for a cab and not the slightest idea where we were. I'll reiterate I was absolutely _ecstatic _about that being over. What I was nervous about, Maura, was the gorgeous woman sitting next to me right now. She was completely oblivious to how I felt about her."

"You could have told me," Hope smiled, which made Constance laugh.

"Hope, I did everything short of spelling it out in the sky for you."

"No," Hope argued. "You did everything short of saying 'Hope, I'm in love with you,' which would have saved both of us a lot of heartache."

Constance grasped her wife's hand. "I didn't think I'd have to be so direct with you. I assumed making you a mixed tape of love songs like 'Waiting For A Girl Like You' and 'The Most Beautiful Girl in the World' with hearts and our initials on the cover would suffice. How silly of me."

"You artists think everything requires a grand gesture. Sometimes you can just use your words," Hope said as she leaned in and kissed her wife.

"Yuck," Maura heard her four-year-old sister, Cailin, say as she looked over from her spot in front of the child-sized easel that Maura had set up for her earlier that day. "Kissing is yucky."

"Good," Constance turned around and faced her youngest daughter. "I want you to keep thinking that way."

Cailin picked up her paintbrush again and went back to painting a picture of a puppy, but not without continuing to voice her opinion on the topic. "My boyfriend, Brayden, tried to kiss me, so I pushed him and now he won't even share his Legos during free play. I don't understand men. I think I'm going to dump him and date Hunter instead. He has his own tree house and I hear he's getting a Mercedes power wheels for his birthday. He'll have his own house _and _a car."

"Cailin Isles!" Hope said in disbelief.

"Young lady, tonight we're going to have a talk about you having a boyfriend," Constance added.

"I'll give up having a boyfriend if you get me a kitten," Cailin smirked.

Constance turned to face her wife. "And now she's blackmailing us. What's our third child going to be like?"

"You're just upset because Cailin is starting to take after you," Hope pointed out. "Your mother told me about when you were nine and you said you were never speaking again unless they got you tickets to see Debbie Gibson because she was－according to what you told your mother－ 'the love of your life.' Face it, honey, you noticed girls at a young age just like Cailin is noticing boys at a young age."

"Yes, but I didn't do so much as kiss a girl until I was eighteen," Constance reminded her. "And I ended up marrying that girl."

"Mom's the _only_ woman you've ever kissed?" Maura asked in disbelief.

"I'm the only woman _she's _ever kissed, too," Constance said in her own defense. "She's just as uncool as I am. And I happen to know of someone else at this table who has only kissed one girl in her entire life."

"And I think this girl has a girlfriend named Jane," Hope teased.

As if on cue, the doorbell rang and Cailin rushed over to see who it was. "Jane's here!"

Hope managed to scoop up her little girl. "Not so fast, little one. You know the rule."

"I know," Cailin sighed. "No answering the door until I'm tall enough to look out the peep hole." But Cailin still managed to free herself from her mom's grasp and run to the door with Hope just a few feet behind.

"Cailin Elizabeth Martin Isles!" Hope said as she reached for the door knob. The app on her phone enabled her to see that it was Jane on the other side of the door, so Hope tried to regain her composure.

"Mrs. Isles," Jane smiled. "Congratulations! Maura told me the good news. My mom sends her congratulations, too. When's Baby Isles gonna be here?"

"Thank you. He'll be here in July," Hope said as she motioned for Jane to come in.

"You mean _she _will be here in July," Constance said from the kitchen. "I still think we're having a daughter. Either way, Hope, we're not having one of those ridiculous gender reveal parties."

"My wife doesn't have to know I've already started planning the party," Hope quietly said to Jane.

"Jane! Jane!" Cailin said excitedly as she tugged on the hem of Jane's hoodie. "I'm going to start playing T-ball in the spring. Mommy's signing me up. Can you teach me to throw right now?"

"Yeah," Jane said and bent down to give Cailin a high-five. "I started playing when I was your age. Do you have a glove and a ball yet?"

"In my room," Cailin responded. "Come on! I'll show you."

Maura knew once Cailin got Jane into her room, it would be an hour before she saw her girlfriend again. Cailin would start by showing Jane her new softball equipment and then move on to her collection of Disney toys and Barbies, so she excused herself from the kitchen table and made her way over to the living room.

"I get Jane first," Maura insisted. When she hugged her girlfriend, Maura smelled the familiar scent of Jane's body spray and the fabric softener used on her Patriots hoodie. For Maura, it was the most inviting and comforting scent and she couldn't bring herself to let go. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Jane said as she playfully lifted her up.

"I can't wait to fall in love," Maura heard her little sister say.

"Yes, you can," Hope responded. "Maura? Maura, can I see you in the kitchen?"

"I'll go hang out with Cailin," Jane said before giving Maura a chaste kiss.

Maura reluctantly let go of her girlfriend and watched as her little sister excitedly walked with Jane upstairs to her room.

Just as they had been during the interview, Maura and her parents were seated at the kitchen table－except, this time, Maura sensed the vibe had changed.

"I think it's time we had the talk," Constance began. Maura noticed that she was nervously playing with a clasp on her bracelet and she wondered what kind of talk would make her typically composed mother feel uneasy.

_Oh, no! Not that talk. _"Mother, I've already had sex," Maura reminded her. "I don't need 'the talk.' Besides, you've told me anything related to sex is something I should discuss with my mom because you never want to hear the word 'vagina' come from my mouth again."

"She's right, sweetie," Hope said as she placed her hand on top of her wife's. "When we gave Maura that talk when she was fourteen, you referred to it as 'down there' and you actually spelled out 'T-H-E-R-E.' I believe you also told our daughter that 'S-E-X' before marriage was illegal in all 50 states and in Europe."

"And when it came to her ex-boyfriend Garrett, it should have been illegal," Constance responded. "But unlike doing the unthinkable with men, this talk is going to be something I actually know about. You and Jane have been together for three months now and I know your relationship is getting serious. It's happening faster than I'd like it to, but just like Hope's mother and my mother couldn't stop us from moving too quickly, we know we can't stop you and Jane."

"And we don't want to stop you," Hope added. "We adore Jane and we think she's perfect for you, but we also know from personal experience that people outside of this household won't always be accepting."

Constance handed Maura the other picture that she had previously asked for. It was a photo of both her mothers in formal dresses and her mom was smiling and proudly showing off her new ring to whoever was behind the camera. "That was my sorority formal during senior year. I had just given your mom a promise ring a few hours prior. I would have proposed to her that night, but marriage wasn't legal yet, so that ring was my promise that I'd always love her even if we couldn't get married. Your mom was pregnant with you during her senior year of high school so she missed senior prom. Kappa Gamma Phi has a formal at the end of every school year, which meant for three years I had failed to ask her because I was too afraid to come out to my sorority sisters. I chose living up to their expectations of me over the woman that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with."

"What made you change your mind about taking her to formal?" Maura asked.

"I was president and with only two weeks left until graduation, I felt like I had nothing to lose. My successor had already been chosen and my only responsibility left within the sorority was to train her."

"And when you showed up with Mom as your date and everyone was accepting, you realized you had been worried for nothing?" Maura asked.

"Quite the contrary," Constance responded.

"I realized why she had kept our relationship a secret from them for four years," Hope added. "One of her sorority sisters was sitting on a frat boy's lap, doing something I'd rather not say, and nobody gave them a second glance. I kissed her once and it was like the end of the world."

Maura wondered if she would face a similar fate. "Did you leave right after that happened?"

"No," Constance smiled at her daughter. "Many of the girls wanted me impeached that night, but the entire executive and judicial board were my closest friends, and I was already out to them. A few of the other girls had too many jello shots to know or care what was happening, so it was safe to say I wasn't getting impeached that night or anytime soon. We left two hours later after the end of the year awards were given out, but we only stayed because I had to preside over the ceremony."

"She's neglecting to say that she won Kappa of the Year," Hope bragged. "The woman I love was voted the sorority's equivalent of Prom Queen."

"That's not exactly the equivalent," Constace kissed her wife's hand. "They give the award to the member who has made the biggest impact on the sorority that year. The voting is done two weeks before formal, so they voted for me before any of this happened."

"Your mother is the one who spoke out against hazing," Hope told Maura. "The reason you weren't kidnapped in the middle of the night or forced to be available to the seniors 24/7 is because this perfect woman pushed for a sorority constitutional amendment the moment she took office."

"The freshmen in particular were so grateful for that amendment," Constance began. "But the moment they found out I was dating a girl, so many of them turned on me. Some didn't speak to me for the remaining two weeks of the school year. Others were fine with it, but I could tell they were uncomfortable around me. The executive board and the judicial board members were my closest friends, but most of the other seniors were apprehensive about sharing the same spaces with me like the showers and the dressing room. Hope's parents－your grandparents－saw me crying when I visited Hope and told me to move in right away."

"They no longer cared that we'd be sharing a bed," Hope said to add some levity to the conversation. "And I found some ways to take her mind off of everything."

"Mom!" Maura said in disbelief.

"Hope!" Constance tried to hide her embarrassment by changing the subject. "Maura, what your mom and I are getting at is the fact that you're going to be coming out to people for the rest of your life, whether it's when your doctor asks you about birth control methods or you have to correct your colleagues when they assume you have a husband and not a wife. When your mom was pregnant with Cailin, there were actually people who asked if she had cheated on me with a man because they couldn't understand how two women could have a baby together without a man involved. We would never ask a heterosexual woman how her baby was conceived yet complete strangers feel they have the right to ask us." Constance gently placed her hand on her wife's lower abdomen. "And when Baby Isles starts to grow, we'll probably get asked the same questions."

"What we want you to know," Hope began. "Is that coming out is your own personal decision and only you know when the timing is right and the situation is right. Some people will handle it better than others and the ones who react negatively don't need to be kept in your life. And, if you ever need any advice, your mother and I are always here for you. Not to mention, my future daughter-in-law is head over heels in love with you."

"Future daughter-in-law?" Maura asked, her smile beaming. "But Jane and I are only eighteen. We haven't even thought about marriage."

"We were eighteen once," Hope reminded her. "And I see how you two look at each other."

The idea of spending a lifetime with Jane filled Maura with happiness and comfort. She began to imagine them having a house together and maybe even children. She wondered if she'd have similar conversations with them and she hoped they'd know how much they're loved and how much their parents love each other, but Maura's thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of her girlfriend's voice.

"The future all-star wants ice cream," Jane said to them with Cailin following behind. "And I know Maura can't resist coffee ice cream. Would you two like to join us?"

"Thank you, but I'm going to lie down," Hope told Jane. "My son is taking a lot out of me."

"You mean our daughter," Constance corrected her. "Our Amelia."

"That's not our son's name," Hope responded. "And, Maura, bring me back a pint of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. It's for Baby Isles, not just me."


	2. Leggings and Green Eyed Maura

**A/N: Thank you penny . robinette .90 for suggesting jealous Maura for this next one shot. And thank you to everyone who left words of encouragement. If there's anything in this little Jane/Maura or Hope/Constance universe that you want me to write about, just leave it in the reviews. :)**

Every year, Maura looked forward to Thanksgiving because it meant Grandma Martin would spend the night at her house. The two of them would spend the day before Thanksgiving shopping for everything they needed to prepare dinner and they'd spend the night before baking pies and cookies until they were certain they'd have enough for the whole family. On Thanksgiving morning, the two of them would wake up early and prepare dinner well into the afternoon while her parents would put the finishing touches on the decorations.

"You know I love my daughter and my daughter-in law," Mrs. Martin said while she and Maura prepared to put the turkey in the oven. "They're two of the most intelligent and accomplished women I've ever met, but heaven help you all when I die and they're the matriarchs of this family."

"Grandma!" Maura laughed.

"Hope tries and I know her heart is in the right place, but everything she cooks tastes like something is missing and Connie－well, bless her heart but that woman can't even make toast without burning it. That's why I gotta teach you everything I know before you develop their habits." Mrs. Martin played with the settings on the oven. "They do have a state of the art kitchen, though. They got that going for them."

"What do we do now that the turkey is in the oven?" Maura asked when she noticed her grandmother take off her apron.

"We have some of that wine that your mother opened," Mrs. Martin said as she motioned to the bottle of wine on top of the kitchen table.

"We're not allowed to touch that," Maura informed her grandmother. "Mother said that bottle is her coping mechanism for having an emotional, pregnant wife."

Mrs. Martin decided not to heed Maura's warning and poured herself a glass of wine from the bottle Constance had opened earlier. "Connie!" she called out, hoping her daughter-in-law would hear her from the formal dining room.

The sound of stiletto heels against the hardwood floor let Maura know that her mother was on her way over. "Yes, Judy?"

"There's my British rose," Mrs. Martin said as she tightly held her daughter-in-law in a side embrace. "Look at you. You don't have to be so perfect all the time. You're in your own house. Take off those heels, change out of that dress, and put on a t-shirt and jeans."

Maura saw her mother grimace at the thought of wearing a t-shirt and jeans. "I haven't worn a t-shirt in years."

"I suggest you start getting used to it now," Mrs. Martin told her. "You're going to have a newborn in a few short months, which means there will be spit-up and drool all over those thousand dollar dresses of yours just like there was the first time Cailin spit-up on you."

"Connie!" The three of them heard Hope call out from upstairs. "Constance, I need you!"

Constance reached for the glass of wine she had poured earlier, but was stopped by her mother-in-law. "Not so fast, young lady. You're gonna face her sober. At this point, my daughter would bite your lips off just to taste the Pinot Noir on them."

Heeding her mother-in-law's advice, Constance slowly made her way over to the master bedroom until the sound of Hope calling her again made her quicken her pace. Constance had expected her wife to ask her opinion on what shoes to wear, but instead she was greeted by the sight of her half-naked wife sifting through a pile of clothes on their bed. "As much as I love the sight of you topless, what on earth are you doing?"

"Nothing fits me," Hope said as she frantically tossed another pair of pants aside.

"But you're only seven weeks," Constance pointed out. "You're not even showing. Baby Isles is just the size of a blueberry."

"My jeans are uncomfortable and my dresses are too binding," Hope argued.

Sensing that her wife was about to cry, Constance decided to risk one of Hope's potential mood swings and hold her as closely as she'd let her. "Lie down with me? I know half the bed is covered in your clothes, so you'll have to be pressed against me."

Hope smiled for the first time during their conversation. "If you're suggesting what I think you are, we only have fifteen minutes until the rest of our guests arrive."

"Fifteen minutes?" Constance asked her. "Hope, I've been memorizing every inch of you since we were teenagers. There's a lot I can accomplish in fifteen minutes."

"And what if I want to reciprocate?" Hope asked in between kissing her wife. "Can I have an additional fifteen minutes?"

Constance ran her finger tips along Hope's back. "There will be time for that later tonight. Right now is about you."

"Hope!" they heard Mrs. Martin say as she knocked on their bedroom door. "Hope, are you okay in there?"

Hope shook her head. "I would have been okay in fifteen minutes, Mom."

"Well, you kids stop playing around in there and come join us," Mrs. Martin responded.

When they heard her leave, the two of them started laughing uncontrollably. "Kids?" Constance asked in disbelief.

"Playing around?" Hope added. "She acts like we're still those two teenage girls watching MTV on the living room sofa like we were in the '90s."

"Those two teenage girls who would practically grope each other on that living room sofa the moment everyone went to bed," Constance teased.

Hope slowly unzipped the back of her wife's dress. "And now we don't have to sneak around. We're married. We can make love to each other whenever we want and studies show that women have their most satisfying sex at 36. Judging by the intensity of your orgasms lately－"

"Girls!" Mrs. Martin knocked louder than before, interrupting what Hope was about to say.

"We'll be right there!" Hope responded as she reluctantly let go of her wife.

"It's alright," Constance said as she grabbed her wife's hand. "Dressing you can be just as sexy as undressing you."

"I'm glad you feel that way," Hope smiled at her. "Because I bought something for us to wear as a backup ensemble."

Constance glanced behind her wife at the Lululemon shopping bag on top of Hope's nightstand. "No," she said sternly. "Nothing good could come from that bag."

"I bought us matching leggings," Hope said excitedly. "They weren't what I had planned on wearing today, but they'll be less confining than jeans."

"Are we doing yoga?"

"No."

"You know who wears leggings in public while not doing yoga or exercising?" Constance asked as she placed her hands on the sides of her wife's waist. "My students. Young women who are 18-25, our daughter's peer group, not women our age."

Hope narrowed her eyes. "We're 36, not 60. Or we might as well be 12 with the way my mother is talking to us. Be a good wife and wear the leggings with me in solidarity."

"I refuse to wear them."

"Wear them and I'll give you a good workout tonight," Hope winked at her.

While imagining the possibilities, Constance changed out of her dress and into the leggings her wife had bought her. Hope mentioned nothing about her wearing the matching zip-up hoodie and putting her hair in a ponytail, but she held onto the possibility that the more she complied, the more enjoyable of a night she'd have with her wife after everyone went to sleep.

"I forgot to tell you we're going to the mall in Natick tonight," Hope said, bringing her out of her train of thought.

"Jane is working a Black Friday shift and I promised Maura we'd take her so they could at least spend a few minutes together. I could also go shopping for jeans and dresses while we're there. Cailin will stay here with my dad and my mom will go with us."

"So this workout you had planned for me tonight is me walking the mall with you, Maura, and your mother on the busiest shopping day of the year?" Constance asked.

"Yes."

Just a few short minutes ago, she had walked in on Hope frustrated and about to cry. Constance was well aware that the next seven and a half months were going to take a toll on her wife, so when Hope gave her a pleading look, there was no way she could refuse. "Alright, I'll go. I'll even take your bags to the car while you move on to the next store."

* * *

Maura knew she had a beautiful girlfriend. Guys looked at her, girls looked at her, even grandmothers would stop and ask if she were a model, but one of the things Maura loved about Jane was the fact that their comments never went to her head. Jane was humble about her appearance because she knew her looks didn't define her. She'd rather have been known for her abilities on the softball field and her intelligence, so when Jane accepted a modelling job for Black Friday, Maura was completely taken aback. The job was at a clothing store in the mall and Jane wasn't modelling per se, but she was required to wear a particular outfit and greet customers along with two good-looking, shirtless guys who were about the same age as her. If customers wanted pictures with them, she was required to comply. Most of the store's clientele were middle school and high school girls, so Maura figured she had absolutely nothing to worry about.

...until she saw what her modest girlfriend was wearing. What was supposed to be some jeans and what Jane called a 'girly' sweater had become a black bikini and an unbuttoned, men's flannel shirt.

Maura had seen Jane wear something similar when it was just the two of them after spending time in the hot tub at her house. She had gotten into her parents' wine collection and, knowing that they had hours by themselves, it wasn't long before that bikini was off. Jane had been shy at first, so it surprised Maura to see her so confident with the guys she was working with.

Within minutes of everyone leaving the Martin-Isles house, Maura was on the road to Natick to see Jane. The drive over there and the search for a parking spot took up over an hour of their time, so Jane was three hours into her shift by the time Maura arrived at the mall. She sat down on a bench across from the store and impatiently waited for Jane's lunch break. Her mother had let her use her credit card to go shopping and her grandmother had offered to keep her company, but Maura wasn't in the mood to do anything other than sit at that bench and watch Jane interact with people.

There were some middle school and high school girls who wanted pictures with the shirtless guys, so Jane had offered to take the photos for them. She was having fun being their photographer and Maura smiled when she saw the playful interactions her girlfriend was having. Every now and then, middle school boys would ask to take a picture with her, but with their mothers right there keeping a watchful eye, the boys' interactions with Jane were always respectful and some of them were even shy around her.

After thirty minutes of watching, Maura realized all of Jane's interactions were harmless, so she grabbed her purse and decided to go to Victoria's Secret to buy something special to wear for Jane that night. Before entering, she glanced inside and noticed her grandmother was looking at perfumes and hand creams. _Lingerie shopping in front of my grandmother? I'll pass_.

The mall was becoming more crowded by the minute and Maura noticed that her former waiting spot on the bench was now occupied by two exhausted fortysomething-year-old husbands whose wives had forced them to be there and hold their bags while they shopped. They were surrounded by shopping bags from Sephora, Victoria's Secret, and Bath and Body Works and there was nothing for them to do other than scroll through apps on their phone. _They need that spot more than I do. _

Instead, she opted to do some window shopping until she noticed a pair of attractive girls about her age, one with a backwards snapback and the other with a small rainbow heart on her sweatshirt. The pair had now approached Jane and Maura felt herself fuming when one of them playfully touched Jane's arm. Maura stared intently at them, hoping they would get a quick photo and then enter the store, but the pair started to engage Jane in conversation, which made Maura move in closer to the store.

_They're talking about school and sports. That's harmless. _Maura's back was now pressed against the wall on the side of the store, just out of Jane's eyesight, but close enough for her to intently listen to their conversation. _One goes to BCU and the other goes to Boston College. _When the one from BCU told Jane to call her sometime, Maura couldn't take it anymore and immediately decided to approach them.

"Jane Rizzoli!" Maura said sternly. She soon realized she sounded more like Angela than she had hoped.

The two other girls looked at each other and started laughing. "Who is this?" The one with the snapback asked Jane.

Maura had expected Jane to proudly introduce her, but instead Jane excused herself and led Maura over to the side. "What are you doing, Maura?"

"What are _you _doing?" Maura asked defensively.

"I'm working."

"In a bikini and an unbuttoned plaid shirt? What happened to your jeans and sweater?"

"They changed it at the last minute," Jane insisted. "Don't you think I'd rather be in jeans and even the girliest sweater possible instead of this? But it's an easy $300 for greeting people and taking some pictures."

Maura narrowed her eyes. "I don't want other girls flirting with you and touching you or even looking at your body."

"Is someone jealous?" Jane asked playfully.

"Who are those girls?"

Jane wrapped her arms around Maura and placed a kiss on her forehead. "Whose girlfriend am I?"

"Mine." Maura tried unsuccessfully to break free from Jane's embrace. "Who are those girls?"

"They're a couple," Jane pointed out. "I Instagram spied on the one in the snapback a few days ago. She pitches for Boston College and the only flirtation going on is the two of us saying we're going to kick the other's ass come gametime. Besides, I figured I'd get her number so the two of us could have another gay couple to double date with. You've been saying we need to make friends with other couples."

"Oh," Maura averted her eyes.

"I would have introduced you had you not come in scolding me like my mom," Jane laughed. "You have to trust me. I'm not Garrett. I'm not going to run around on you. I can barely even handle _your _libido. How could I handle having another girl on the side?"

"That isn't funny, Jane."

"I love you," Jane reminded her. "But I need you to be confident in us. When softball season starts, I'm going to be travelling all over the country, but no matter where I am or who I'm spending time with, I'm only yours. I promise you." She gave Maura a quick kiss on the lips. "Besides, you're going to London this Christmas. How do I know that some beautiful English girl isn't going to sweep you off your feet?"

"I'll only be in Greater London for three days," Maura pointed out. "After that, we'll spend a week at Isles Manor. It's in the countryside, far away from London."

"Isles _Manor_?" Jane asked in disbelief.

"It's my grandparents' vacation home. My mother spent all of her childhood summers there. It's been in the family for centuries," Maura said nonchalantly. "I'll be related to every woman there and those I'm not related to are well into their 70s and friends of my grandparents."

"Sounds fun," Jane said sarcastically.

"I'm finally allowed to play the drinking game this year," Maura smirked. "It's a game my mother and her sisters made up to pass the time at my grandparents' annual holiday party. Imagine the BCU drinking game but with £500 bottles of wine instead of Everclear and preppy college students are replaced with the upper echelon of British society."

"I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad I'll be spending Christmas with my obnoxious cousins instead of your hoity toity society family," Jane teased.

"Unless I take you to London with me."


	3. First Kisses and Feminine Charms

**A/N: Thanks everyone for your suggestions. After this chapter, the next few will be focused on Jane and Maura in London. If there's anything in particular you want Jane and Maura to do on their London trip, leave a suggestion in the reviews. :)**

December 13, 1996

Maura's first Christmas was quickly approaching and, although Hope knew her four-month-old daughter hadn't the slightest idea what was happening around her, she still went out of her way to document everything that was happening so that someday her daughter would be able to look back at the photos and know she was loved. There was her first picture with Santa at the mall while she was wearing her new Christmas dress and hair bow. As a teenage mother and a college freshman, Hope didn't have that much money, but she spent as much as she could on gifts for her daughter. There were also presents under the tree for Maura from Hope's parents, her friends, and gifts sent all the way from London from Mr. and Mrs. Isles and Constance's little sister.

Hope thought about the day she took a home pregnancy test during Christmas break when she was seventeen and how much she cried when she found out the test was positive. A month prior, she had submitted her applications to BCU, Harvard, and Yale and, as valedictorian, her guidance counselors told her there was no doubt she'd get accepted to every school she applied to. She daydreamed about what her dorm would look like, what sorority she'd join, and the classes she'd take. College was going to be the best four years of her life, but that changed the moment she got the results of her pregnancy test. She thought about what had happened the night she finished her BCU application. For weeks she had isolated herself while completing her applications－reading and re-reading her admissions essays and making sure she had everything required for her application. The moment her final application was finished, she called her boyfriend and he insisted they go out to a party at his friend's house and celebrate. They found a secluded area outside of town after they left the party and it was in the backseat of his car that night that her daughter was conceived. She thought about that night as she stared at the two pink lines on the pregnancy test and, as she cried in the bathroom by herself, she hated him for ruining her life. Although he swore they'd raise Maura together, he was the first to leave her, followed by her friends, and then the dreams of the life she was going to have. She lost her place as valedictorian and once she started showing, she had to leave her school and finish her courses from home. Instead of a dorm room, she'd have to live at home and commute to BCU, and there was no way she'd get to join a sorority and go to parties like she had planned.

Her college experience was nothing like she had planned, but exactly a year after she found out she was pregnant, Hope realized that the college experience she was having was even better and it was all thanks to her daughter and the girl she had met while attending a Rush event even though she knew there was no chance she'd get a Bid. She didn't know if it was her accent, the fact that she looked as if she was straight out of the fashion pages of a teen magazine, or how she was easily one of the most beautiful girls in school and didn't even care, but Hope was drawn to Constance in a way she couldn't comprehend.

Hope invited her over to her house after the Rush event and they spent the entire night talking and watching cheesy horror movies. They were inseparable after that night and, in four months, they had gone from best friends to girlfriends even if their timing was terrible.

Their feelings for each other were almost instant, yet neither had the nerve to say anything until just thirty minutes ago when Hope decided to kiss Constance under the mistletoe after a Secret Santa gift exchange they had with their friends. Their first kiss was not what movies were made of. As Constance had never kissed anyone before, and Hope was nervous about kissing her best friend, their first kiss was quick and even a bit awkward for the two of them. What made matters worse was that their friends were watching them from inside the house.

"Let's go to my room," Hope said as she grabbed Constance's hand. "I want to be alone with my girlfriend."

Girlfriend. It was the word she felt like she had waited an eternity to use and now that she was finally able to use it, the girl of her dreams was flying back home to London in just a few short hours.

Hope made sure to lock the door behind them when they got to her room. She had a special going away gift for her girlfriend and it was something she didn't want their friends to walk in on.

The designer clothes and trendy boutique pieces Constance usually wore were replaced with a light pink fleece pullover with her sorority letters on the front and a pair of Abercrombie & Fitch jeans. It was the same pair of jeans and same fleece pullover that their friends were wearing and, under different circumstances, Hope would have felt left out because she was the only one not wearing those letters, but now Constance was her girlfriend, she couldn't help thinking her girlfriend was the cutest girl in the entire sorority and she was proud of her for earning her letters.

"I'm sorry," were the first words Constance said when Hope shut the door behind them. "I don't know what I'm doing."

"Your first kiss is supposed to be awkward," Hope reassured her. "It's just that most of us experience it in junior high or the first half of high school, not at eighteen."

"That doesn't make me feel better. I'm a virgin _and _I don't know how to kiss a girl."

Hope playfully pulled her girlfriend close to her. "I can help you with both of those things."

"Is sex all you think about?" Constance asked. It was a tone of voice Hope had never heard her use before and she wondered if she had made the right decision in asking her to be her girlfriend.

"I was trying to make you feel better," Hope said as she let go of her.

"...we need to talk."

She remembered some advice her dad had given her older brother when he first started dating. His words of wisdom were if a woman said, 'We need to talk,' it meant you were in trouble. _My relationship is ending the day it began._

"Let's go to my bed," Hope said and then immediately caught her words. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way."

Throughout their friendship, there were countless times when the two of them laid in bed together, cuddled up to each other－sometimes with Maura, sometimes just the two of them－but they had always been comfortable with each other until that night. It was their first night as a couple and yet Hope had never felt that much distance between the two of them.

They were seated at the side of Hope's bed and, as much as Hope wanted to hold her hand, she didn't want to risk upsetting her even more.

"I miss my best friend," Constance said after what felt like an eternity of silence. "I've always wanted a girlfriend, yet I've lost my best friend in the process. My best friend understood me, but I feel as if my girlfriend is someone I don't even know. We've been a couple for thirty minutes and you've already changed."

"This is new to me," Hope confessed. "Not just being with a girl. This whole feeling is new to me. I was with my ex-boyfriend for almost two years and yet what I felt for him is nothing in comparison to what I feel for you and I've only known you for four months. My attraction to you made me realize who I am and made me realize I was never attracted to him. I saw him naked countless times and felt nothing. I saw you in my pajama pants and a spaghetti strap shirt and I couldn't even think straight. No pun intended. Whenever I had sex with him, it was always so quick and clumsy, but I think I did it just to prove something to myself. I had always assumed guys were just supposed to enjoy it more than girls and it was common for girls not to feel any type of arousal and then that fateful afternoon at Victoria's Secret happened when there was only one fitting room left so I went in with you and you just _had to_ try on that lacy push-up bra with the front clasp. I hope you don't think it's inappropriate, but I did something to relieve all of my...tension...later that night because I couldn't stop thinking about you."

Constance grabbed her girlfriend's hand. "I'm wearing that bra right now."

"So, why is your sorority sweatshirt still on?"

"Didn't we just talk about this?" Constance smiled at her. "Hope, everything you're wanting, I'm wanting, too. Everything you're feeling, I'm feeling, too. We were both guilty of pushing our boundaries that afternoon. There were two other fitting rooms available. I just told you there were none so you'd go in there with me. You chose to show me what you were trying on and I chose to act like I was having trouble with that front clasp so you could undo it for me. You know how much I'm attracted to you and I want you to be my first, but that isn't going to happen right away. Maybe not anytime soon. Saving myself is important to me and I need to know you're okay with that."

She wasn't sure if it'd be a welcomed gesture, but she leaned in and kissed her girlfriend. "I love you and I don't care how long I have to wait...as long as I get to kiss you."

"Anytime you want to."

That single kiss turned into another and then another until a glance at the alarm clock on her nightstand let Hope know that nearly an hour had passed. "Our friends are still downstairs!" Hope said as she got off of her girlfriend and attempted to straighten out her sweater. "How were we making out for an hour? And, I think the most important question is, how did you go from being awkward and shy to kissing like _that_?"

"You caught me off guard outside and our friends were watching. I couldn't exactly kiss you the way I wanted to," Constance responded. She looked at the pink lipstick stains on the collar of her girlfriend's sweater. "I think you need to change. They'll never let us hear the end of it if you go out there like that and if your parents see, I'll never be able to spend the night with you again."

"My sweater is the least of our problems," Hope responded. "Connie, go look at your neck."

Constance sat in front of Hope's vanity mirror, expecting to find Hope's lipgloss smeared on her neck. Instead, what she saw were dark marks, some of which she assumed were from Hope's braces. "What did you do to me?" she asked worriedly as she traced the outline of one of the marks on her neck. "I'm going to see my parents tomorrow and I'm probably going to see _your _parents the moment I walk out."

Hope got off her bed and made her way over to the vanity mirror. Her makeup bag was set on top and she rummaged through it looking for some foundation to give to her girlfriend. "You can cover the marks with this. I'm sorry. I got carried away."

"Please don't be sorry." Constance turned around and kissed her girlfriend. "I love you. Once the stinging goes away, they'll be a reminder of what we did tonight. We'll be apart for almost a month and I'm going to need every reminder of you that I can get."

"A month?" Hope asked in disbelief. "How are we going to be apart for a month? In the four months that I've known you, the longest we've been apart is two days and now that you're my girlfriend, I don't think I could even go _two hours_ without kissing you."

"It'll go quickly, darling. And, someday, we won't be apart anymore. Someday, we'll be living together and every time I go to London, I'll take you and Maura with me."

Hope watched as her girlfriend rubbed foundation on her neck in an unsuccessful attempt at trying to cover up the marks she had left. "A year ago today I found out I was pregnant and I thought my life was over, but ever since Maura and you came into my life, I feel like everything is just beginning."

"I'm not going to do what your ex-boyfriend did," Constance promised her. "You're not going to go through life feeling alone. We're going to raise Maura together and be a family. You don't have to depend on him in any way. I can help you support her. My mother will be thrilled when she finds out we're a couple. Now that Margaret, Camilla, and I are older, she says we need babies in the family and she adores Maura."

Hearing her girlfriend's words filled Hope with comfort. "How did I get the most perfect girlfriend?"

"I'm not perfect," Constance insisted. "When you're in a relationship with someone, it's supposed to be this way. You're supposed to love each other and support each other. I'm not going to leave you, Hope. My plan is to marry you someday and make sure you're loved every single day of your life. No matter how far away I am, you'll always be in my heart. I'll think about you every single moment."

"I didn't know there was this side of you," Hope smiled at her.

"I didn't know either. Maybe there wasn't until I met you."

Hope reached for a stuffed animal on her bed, a teddy bear that was given to her on her fourth birthday. Although she was now eighteen and a mother, she still cuddled him at night whenever she was feeling down. Only Constance knew about him and that revelation was only the result of the two of them in a delirious state after staying up all night studying for a calculus midterm.

"What are you doing with Kensington?" Constance asked. She had now given up on applying foundation and decided to accept whatever fate awaited her when she arrived in London.

"I can't go to London, but he can," Hope pointed out. "I'm going to spray my perfume on him and send him with you. That way you can hold him at night and think of me."

"I still don't understand how a four-year-old came up with that name for a teddy bear," Constance said as she watched Hope spray the teddy bear with perfume.

"Maybe my four-year-old self had psychic abilities. I named my bear Kensington and my girlfriend lives in Kensington. Maybe I knew you were out there somewhere."

Constance held the bear close so she could smell her girlfriend's perfume. "Kensington, you're going to Kensington with me."

"I hope you don't think this is juvenile."

"Not at all," Constance responded. She gently set the teddy bear down, making sure to turn him around so he wouldn't see what she was about to do. "I have something for you, too." Before she could think twice and change her mind, she took off her sorority sweatshirt and handed it to Hope. "I know non-members aren't supposed to wear the letters, but while I'm gone, I want you to wear this whenever you miss me. It'll be like I'm holding you."

Hope looked at the sorority sweatshirt she was holding and then at her girlfriend who was wearing nothing more than jeans and the push-up bra she bought that day they went shopping at Victoria's Secret. "You weren't lying. You really are wearing the push-up bra, the one with the clasp in the front."

"Hope Martin, is that all you think about?"

Hope tried unsuccessfully to look her girlfriend in the eyes instead of her chest. "That bra is making it incredibly difficult to focus right now. You could even ask me a science-related question and I wouldn't know the answer."

Knowing the effect it would have on her girlfriend, Constance undid the front clasp on her bra and held it up by her fingertips. "Now I'm not wearing it. Are you able to focus?"

Constance expected a witty comeback from her girlfriend, so she was surprised when Hope playfully pulled her onto the bed with her. "Right now I don't even know my own name. All I can focus on are－"

"The part of my body that you're eyeing?" Constance teased. "I know I'm not ready for sex, but I neglected to tell you that only means no sex below the waist."

"Everything above is fair game?"

They were alone for another fifteen minutes before Hope noticed it was Maura's bedtime. Their friends were watching a movie in the living room and swapping stories about the other girls in their sorority and Hope had assumed her girlfriend would join them until she looked over and saw Constance smiling sweetly at her. "Is it time for our daughter's bedtime routine."

* * *

Hope was reading an article on her phone when a notification of an email from her mother-in-law popped up. The fact that it was now morning in London made Hope realize that she had been lying awake in bed for hours. She either experienced fatigue or restless nights since the start of her pregnancy and that night happened to be the latter.

"_Jane's flight is all taken care of. I absolutely cannot wait to see you and the girls and meet my granddaughter's new girlfriend. I always knew Maura would be with a girl. She never looked right with a boy. I know you haven't been able to sleep lately so use my daughter's feminine charms to help you and please tell Constance I'm still alive and she should call me once in awhile."_

Hope thought about the winter breaks and summer breaks she spent apart from Constance during their undergraduate years－the nights she slept in her sweatshirt just so she could feel as if she were there with her. She knew Maura, at the very least, would have social media and could be in constant communication with Jane, but photos and text messages couldn't compare to physically being with someone and sharing experiences with them and she hoped her wife would be on the same page.

"Connie," she said after she kissed her wife's shoulder. "Honey, wake up."

"No," her wife replied with her eyes still closed. "I'm giving a final exam to 150 freshmen tomorrow and I've spent the past week answering emails regarding what they could do to raise their grade. A part of me wanted to tell some of them to build a time machine and go back to August when they still had a chance at an A."

"That was you in Calculus eighteen years ago," Hope reminded her. "Except you had to show up at office hours instead of sending an email."

"And Professor Campbell said, 'Miss Isles, if you had put in half the effort all semester as you have over the past week and stopped ogling Miss Martin, you might have had a chance at something higher than a C.'"

"Sweetheart, a C was him being generous," Hope snickered. "We both saw your final exam grade. You should have gotten a C- in the class. I just think he didn't want to see you the following semester."

Constance wrapped her arm around her wife and pulled her in as close as she could. "Could you tell me the real reason you're awake at this hour? Are you feeling alright?"

"I was just thinking about our first winter break apart," Hope said as she tucked a few strands of hair behind her wife's ear. "Jane and Maura are going to experience that next week."

"Unlike us, Jane and Maura have Snapchat and Instagram and they'll probably be sending goodness knows what kind of pictures to each other. Their first winter break apart will be fine."

"Why don't we bring Jane with us?"

"Because we don't want to spoil our children and bringing our daughter's girlfriend with us would be spoiling her," Constance reminded her wife. "We promised that we'd make sure our girls never went without anything, but spoiled children turn into insufferable adults."

"We lost Maura for six years when she decided to go to boarding school," Hope pointed out. "Jane is the reason we finally have her back. I see her almost every weekend now and you see her almost everyday for lunch. She's opening up to us now and letting us be a part of her life. I don't want to lose that. Our girls are so different from each other. Cailin is like you. Cailin isn't going to get bullied at school. Cailin is going to have friends and sleepovers and her first serious boyfriend will probably be some hippie artist guy that you have hour-long conversations with. Cailin isn't going to date a Garrett Fairfield. She's not going to date a guy that lowers her self-esteem. The things that Maura has been through, I've been through, and I know what it's like to meet a girl who makes you feel alive again."

"Alright, we're taking Jane with us. Maura has accomplished so much this semester. I don't see the harm in rewarding her. I'll call Mrs. Rizzoli in the morning to get Jane's passport information so we can purchase her ticket."

Hope remembered her mother-in-law's advice and grabbed Constance's hand so she could place it on her breast. "I know how you can help me sleep and studies show that sex during pregnancy benefits both the mother and the baby. The hormones released during－"

"Please stop talking like that," Constance interrupted. "It's almost as bad as last week when you said pregnancy causes more blood flow to your vulva. I love what pregnancy has done to your libido, but I don't love the terminology you use to describe it."

"Shall I describe it like a romance novel instead?" Hope teased. "She was spread open like a flower in bloom just waiting for her lover to taste her sweet nectar－"

"I'm going back to sleep."

"No, don't. Just hold me and we'll watch horrible reality TV. Being in your arms soothes me."

"I suppose I can manage that," Constance said before kissing her wife.

Hope flipped through channels for what seemed like an eternity before shutting the TV off again. "I don't think I could stoop to the level of watching these shows. Parents exploiting their children through beauty pageants, an entire family who is famous for creating scandals－"

"Which is why we don't watch any of this," Constance reminded her. "Let's go back to your original plan but, first, there's something I want to talk to you about."

"We'll talk after," Hope said in between kissing her wife.

Constance pulled away from her. "No, this is going to bother me. When I said we could arrange for Jane to go with us in the morning, you immediately changed the subject. Why is that? Is it because you've already booked her flight?"

"No," Hope responded nervously.

"Hope, I've known you half my life, which means I know when you're lying."

"_I _didn't book anything…" she hesitated. "Your mother did."

"What?" Constance asked in disbelief. "She always does that. She always undermines my decisions as a parent and gets our girls every extravagant thing they want. Remember when Maura was fourteen and she got her a car?"

"Honey, it's so cute that deep down you're still that little princess who doesn't understand the concept of money and what things cost."

"Meaning?"

"You think we could afford an eight million dollar house in Beacon Hill on our salaries," Hope shook her head. "Your parents paid for it as a gift for your 30th birthday. They still pay the property taxes for us every year. Just be grateful she downgraded Maura's gift to paying for Jane's flight as opposed to her original plan of buying our teenage daughter an apartment in Paris because, and I quote, 'Maura needs a place where she can get away from it all.' It's just how grandmothers are with their grandkids. Your mother and my mother undermine every parental decision you and I make and in ten or fifteen years, the two of us and Angela Rizzoli will undermine every decision Jane and Maura make as parents. Oh, and your mother wants you to call her. She also said you should use your feminine charms to help me fall asleep at night."

"My mother had the audacity to say that?" Constance asked before turning the other way. "And you've talked about such things with her? My feminine charms and I are staying fully covered and going back to sleep."

Sensing her wife was embarrassed, Hope decided to hold her as close as she could. "I told you we should have talked afterward. You're so much more agreeable when you're post-orgasm."

Meanwhile in a dorm room at BCU, Maura was studying for her final exams, completely unaware that the next day she'd find out that she wouldn't be spending the entire winter break on a different continent from her girlfriend.


	4. High Fashion and Young Janice Dickinson

**A/N: Chapter 1 of the London chapters. Chapter 2 will be Jane and Maura sexytimes and the London Eye. If you have any requests for day 2 of their trip, just leave it in the comments. :)**

For the third time that morning, Maura looked at the checklist she had made. Items on her checklist ranged from her passport to the smallest details such as her favorite lip gloss to Jane's favorite pair of underwear on her, but it was all in packed away in her Louis Vuitton luggage and carry on bag. She wondered how Jane packed－if she was the type of girl who brought clothes for every type of weather imaginable and thirty pairs of underwear for a ten-day trip－until she remembered who her girlfriend truly was. _Knowing Jane, she'll probably bring four pairs of jeans, a few hoodies, and a jacket. We'll just buy something over there for her to wear to Grandmother's holiday party._

_The holiday party. What if Jane is uncomfortable the entire night? _Maura knew Jane would have preferred a holiday party at Grandma Martin's house complete with the Patriots game on TV in the living room, drinking beer outside by the fire pit, and filling up on Grandma Martin's freshly baked desserts. Grandma and Grandpa Martin had grown up in Revere and met at the same high school that Jane attended and later moved to Charlestown after they got married. They were blue collar all the way and Jane mentioned that they reminded her of the Irish version of her own family.

Unlike her grandfather who rarely talked, Grandma Isles was direct and unapologetic. She wasn't the kind of grandmother that would read her grandchildren a bedtime story. Rather, she'd attempt to solve their problems with extravagant gifts. Her mother had told her that there was never any affection in their house. Her and her sisters weren't told they were loved. Their childhood artwork wasn't displayed nor were their school photos. From the moment they turned four, they were treated like little adults and, every time Maura went to England to visit her other side of the family, she was reminded of why her mother was the way she was.

Maura wondered if there'd be a moment when she'd have to play mediator. If her grandmother said something that offended Jane, how would either of them react? _Don't worry. Everything will be fine. I'm sure Grandma will be on her best behavior with Jane._

Just moments after finishing her checklist, Maura heard the doorbell ring followed by the sound of Cailin rushing down the stairs shouting, "Jane's here! Jane's here!"

Knowing her little sister wasn't allowed to open the door, Maura hurried downstairs to stop her. "What did our moms say about you answering the door?" She asked as she scooped up her little sister.

"I know," Cailin responded in a frustrated tone of voice. "But one day I'll be big and open the door."

"Go make sure you have the toys you want to take to Grandma and Grandpa's house."

"Okay," Cailin sighed.

Maura looked out the peephole and saw Jane and Angela on the other side of the door along with Jane's luggage. Maura immediately flung open the door and leapt into her girlfriend's arms, causing Jane's luggage to fall backward.

The sound of the luggage falling made Maura's mom rush over to see what the commotion was.

"Girls!" Angela Rizzoli said to get their attention when she noticed her daughter's hands cupping Maura's behind to hold her in place.

"They act like they didn't see each other just yesterday," Hope shook her head. "Come in, Angela. I'll make sure to give you the addresses we'll be at. You already have my number and Maura's number, but I'll give you my wife's and my mother-in-law's phone numbers in case of an emergency."

She took a seat on the couch next to Hope. "An emergency?" Angela asked worriedly.

"There won't be any emergencies. My wife just likes to over-prepare." Constance said when she entered the living room. "We'll be staying at my parents' house in London for three days and then we'll spend a week at my family's countryside home. Maura has been to London at least twice a year since she was three-years-old. She knows the city as well as she knows Boston. She and Jane will be safe when she takes Jane sightseeing."

"Maura and Jane?" Angela asked, confused. "Won't one of you be with them?"

"They're eighteen-years-old," Constance reminded her. "When I was their age, I left England and moved to America. I think they're more than able to do some sightseeing on their own for a few hours a day."

"We'll only be alone during the day," Jane reassured her mom. "Maura and I will be back at her grandparents' house before it gets dark."

Maura was well aware of the arrangement they had made. They were expected to be back by dinnertime and then they'd go to dinner as a family. After that, the night was theirs and she had a few surprises in store for Jane.

"Jane will be perfectly safe," Hope told Angela. "Connie and I will look out for her and we'll make sure Jane checks in with you the moment the plane lands, when we get to my in-laws' house in London, when we get to the Manor, and I'll make sure she calls you each day. Jane's our future daughter-in-law. Her safety is our priority."

_Future daughter-in-law. _Maura smiled at Jane, but Jane was too preoccupied with nervously twirling her hair to pay attention to her.

"Can I have a moment with Jane upstairs?" Maura asked.

"Seeing as we're leaving in ten minutes, no, you cannot," Constance responded. "I don't want to have to go upstairs and interrupt the type of moment you're thinking of having with your girlfriend."

* * *

Maura had hoped to spend the entire flight holding Jane's hand and watching movies together, so she was disappointed when Cailin forced her way in between them during the boarding process. "Aren't we in first class?" Maura asked her parents.

"_We_ are in first class," Constance responded as she gestured between herself and Hope. "Your mom is pregnant and she needs to be in a more comfortable seat."

"But _you _aren't pregnant," Maura pointed out. "You can sit with Cailin and I can sit with Jane."

"Oh, no, darling. I have to sit in first class with your mom in case she needs me."

Maura wanted to bring to her attention that her mom was an OB/GYN and knew how to take care of herself when she was pregnant, but instead she accepted her fate as her little sister's babysitter throughout the duration of the flight.

Nearly an hour passed before she and Jane could convince Cailin that window seats were the best seats in the entire plane because you could look outside and that she should switch with Maura and it was another two hours after that before Cailin stopped talking to the two of them and went to sleep.

Once Cailin fell asleep, Maura considered taking Jane to the bathroom so they could join the mile high club, but her girlfriend shot down the idea before she could even ask the question. Instead, she rested her head on Jane's shoulder and the two of them fell asleep until forty-five minutes before they landed－when Cailin wanted to show them how the clouds looked.

* * *

When they arrived at their destination, Maura was surprised to see her grandmother come rushing out the door to greet them. Unlike Grandma Martin－who wore jeans and sweaters－Grandma Isles was always dressed in couture, wore Manolo Blahnik heels, and refused to age gracefully. She was a blue-eyed blonde－although that blonde hair was now courtesy of hair dye from an expensive salon. At sixty-five, she was still a beautiful woman even if she had undergone cosmetic surgery to remain beautiful. In the '60s, her grandmother had dabbled in modelling and Maura enjoyed listening to her stories about the parties she attended and photoshoots she did. Maura's mothers raised her to believe there was more to women than their looks, but that never deterred Maura from spending hours in her grandmother's closet full of vintage clothes and shoes.

Grandma Isles had hugged her mom first, commenting on how she can't wait for Baby Isles to be born. "Hope, I think you're going to have twins!" Grandma Isles said excitedly. "I can tell by the way you're carrying them."

"How could you tell by the way she's carrying them?" Constance asked in a frustrated tone of voice. "Hope isn't even showing yet."

"Well, it's lovely to see you, too, Constance," Grandma Isles said dryly. "The prodigal daughter returns."

Cailin ran up to hug her grandmother and Maura was grateful for the distraction. "Hi, Gramma!"

"My adorable little girl!" Grandma Isles said as she hugged Cailin tightly. "I've missed you so. There's brownies for you on the table inside. I made sure to get your favorite, but not too much, darling. I don't want you gaining weight."

"Brownies!" Cailin said excitedly as she ran inside the house, clutching her favorite teddy bear.

Grandma Isles hugged Maura closer than ever before. "My beautiful granddaughter! You look more like your mom everyday. We'll have to make some time to talk about your first quarter at BCU. Your mom told me you joined a sorority. I have some sorority memorabilia for you from when your mother was in college."

"Thank you," Maura smiled. "I look forward to spending time with you this week. I love your shoes. Are they new?"

"I knew you'd notice and there's a pair of them for you in the house."

"Thank you so much, Mother," Constance said sarcastically. "We've just arrived and you've already told my four-year-old you don't want her to gain weight and you've given my other daughter a £900 pair of shoes and my sorority memorabilia. The memorabilia was for _me _to give to my daughter. You didn't earn those letters."

"Grandma, this is my girlfriend Jane," Maura said once she sensed that Jane had become uncomfortable with the conversation.

"Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Isles," Jane said as she extended her hand.

"Nonsense," Grandma Isles said and shook Jane's hand. "My daughter might have you call her Mrs. Isles, but you can call me Victoria. Is this your first time in London?"

"Yeah," Jane smiled. "I'm really excited to see the city tomorrow. Maura and I are going on the London Eye. Thank you for the plane ticket and letting me stay in your home."

"You teenagers and the London Eye," Grandma Isles smiled in return. "I bet you and Maura plan on taking a kissing picture for social media while you're on it. You two look so cute together. If I were Maura, I'd show you off on social media every chance I had. And, your dimples! Look at your dimples! And that perfect bone structure. You could be on the runways with your perfect face and body type. Did anyone ever tell you you look like a young Janice Dickinson? Hope, doesn't she look like a young Janice Dickinson?"

Hope cared little about the modelling world except for the occasional Victoria's Secret catalogue she'd sneak into her room when she was in middle school for reasons she couldn't comprehend at the time, but in order to appease her mother-in-law, she decided to agree. "She does look like her, but I'm sure Maura would say that no one could compare to Jane. Just like in my eyes there is no woman in the world as beautiful as Connie."

"I detest that nickname. I named her Constance, not Connie," Grandma Isles shook her head. "But I agree with you, Hope. My daughter is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen and I'm not saying that because I'm her mother. All three of my girls are attractive but, in all honesty, their beauty doesn't compare to hers. She was scouted, you know? She was only thirteen at the time and an agent saw her walking home in her school uniform and braided pigtails. She was a bit of an overdeveloped thirteen-year-old so they thought she was sixteen. Fortunately, the photographer didn't care about her age and he did a photoshoot with her. My daughter was always a bit reserved, so she came home crying after the shoot and said she never wanted to do that again."

"Jane, Maura, why don't you two get settled?" Constance asked them. "You're probably tired and I know you want to plan what you'll be doing tomorrow. You'll be staying in my old room. Maura, your mom and I will be sleeping in the room next to you if you need anything."

"Sure," Jane responded, grateful to get out of the tense situation. "Maura, I'll help you with your bags."

"You know perfectly well I wasn't crying because I'm reserved," Constance told her mother once Jane and Maura were indoors. "I came home crying because the photographer－a 40-year-old man－put his hands all over my 13-year-old body. He had me pose topless for him and, when I told you, you said partial nudity is required in high fashion and I should get used to it. _He_ is the reason why I couldn't properly be intimate with Hope until I was almost twenty. It wasn't because I was prudish or reserved. And as per your email the other night, my wife is completely satisfied, and I'd like you to stay out of that aspect of my marriage. I'm going to check on Cailin. Hope, would you care to join me?"

Hope quickly kissed her wife. "No, I think I'll stay out here for a moment. I've always loved the way your neighborhood looks at night."

"She's always been my difficult one," Mrs. Isles said once she was sure her daughter couldn't hear her anymore. "She treated the walls like her canvas when she was a toddler and when she was thirteen, she'd stay out all hours of the night with her friends and－

"When she was thirteen? So, after the time you let a grown man take her innocence from her?" Hope interrupted. "That difficult daughter of yours is my wife. You did nothing to protect her when she needed you and now you wonder why she doesn't call you. For the past eighteen years, I've wondered why she was so distant from you even though you'd given us everything. Connie and I have never kept any secrets from each other, yet you made her bury this so deep down within herself that she couldn't even tell me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going inside to talk to my wife."

* * *

On top of the bed in her mother's old room were the pair of heels that her grandmother had promised her and Maura changed into them without hesitation.

"Just what you needed, more shoes," Jane shook her head. "You have like thirty pairs in your dorm, plus the ones you have at your house. You only have two feet, Maura."

"And what about all of the softball equipment you have?" Maura asked in her own defense. "You only have two hands, Jane. You don't need all those mittens."

"Mittens? Really?" Jane laughed. "They're mitts or gloves and I only wear them on one hand, not two."

"How is that better?"

"You know what? How about I'll admit I have a problem when you do?"

Jane had placed their luggage neatly against the wall and Maura began to unpack the outfits she planned on wearing over the next three days.

"You don't need six outfits for three days," Jane pointed out.

"I need my daytime sightseeing clothes and my evening clothes," Maura informed her. "My grandmother doesn't go to restaurants that allow you to dress casual."

"Please don't remind me that we'll be having dinner with your grandmother every night," Jane groaned. "I appreciate what she's done for us, but she kinda creeps me out. All she comments on is physical appearance and, no, I do not look like a young Janice Dickinson. Besides, she's kind of a jerk to her daughter. No wonder she left and wanted the entire Atlantic Ocean between her and this place."

The sound of Jane's phone ringing interrupted their conversation and it dawned on her that she had forgotten to call her mom when they arrived. Although it was impolite, Maura couldn't help listening in on their conversation. "Ma? I'm sorry. I met Maura's grandma and I was gonna call as soon as we got settled...yes, I'm sharing a room with Maura...I'm eighteen, Ma, I can share a room with my girlfriend...it's already late so we're staying in tonight, but we're going to the London Eye tomorrow...the big giant ferris wheel... no this house doesn't look like Clue, but I'm pretty sure the Manor will...I have to go unpack...I'll call you tomorrow before dinner...Love you, too, Ma."

"I've never heard you say that to your mother before," Maura smiled at her girlfriend.

"Well, after what we witnessed outside, I'm really glad Ma is my mom," Jane responded. "I also wasn't expecting this type of room. I expected some type of Pretty Pretty Princess bedroom. Instead there's a poster of Kurt Cobain, Smashing Pumpkins, _Pulp Fiction, _and there's pictures of your mom randomly taped to the walls. I expected the pictures of your mom, but not the _Pulp Fiction _poster."

"You couldn't be a brooding art student in the '90s without liking _Pulp Fiction_," they heard Hope say from the doorway of the bedroom. "I just came to say goodnight, girls."

"Goodnight, Mom."

"Goodnight, Mrs. Isles," Jane responded. "Thanks again for bringing me."

"You're welcome, Jane, and I don't want you to think I was eavesdropping, but I overheard you say you didn't bring anything to wear for dinner. Your jeans and sweatshirts will be fine. My mother-in-law isn't in charge anymore－my wife and I are－and we'll go anywhere you girls want to go. Even if it means we're eating greasy pizza and fried food. I know you girls have had a long day, so I'll let you have some time alone. Oh, and Maura? Your mother wanted me to remind you that we're in the room right next to you and we can hear everything. So, if you're going to do anything, please do it quietly."

* * *

After another two hours of Maura raiding her mother's closet filled with clothes from the '90s and posting her retro ensembles to her Snapchat story and Jane checking out Constance's '90s alternative music collection, the two of them finally decided to turn in for the night.

The bed in Constance's old room was a twin bed, but because of their months spent in the dorms, Jane and Maura were used to sleeping next to each other in small spaces. What they weren't used to was a lack of privacy next door.

"Be on your best behavior," Jane said jokingly once they were lying down.

"For now," Maura smiled. "If we get up before everyone tomorrow morning, we can sneak in the shower." 


	5. Anything and Everything

**A/N: Sorry about the two months between updates. We just finished up our busy season at work and I finally have some time to update again. I got a few suggestions for the Hope/Con talk about what happened to Constance when she was a teenager. So the next two chapters will be focused on that followed by Jane and Maura on the London Eye and Jane and Maura sexy times. If anyone has any other requests, just let me know. :)**

April 2003

Three years had passed since Hope and Constance had graduated from college and, with each passing year, they left the girls they were as undergraduates further behind. There were no more Saturday night sleepovers with their core group of friends or Two o'clock Cookie Walks with the same group of girls in which they'd go get cookies and ice cream at two a.m. and then spend hours talking at their favorite campus hangout spots. Their friends were now in other states, some in other countries and they were all too focused on their new careers or graduate school to see each other on a regular basis. Their weekly sleepovers were now a once-a-year reunion that happened in the summer and Hope knew even that might not last much longer.

Her third year of medical school was coming to an end and, although she had spent her entire life knowing she wanted to be a doctor, the fact that she had only one year left before actually achieving her dream filled her with doubt that she could make it in the real world. Three years ago, she had moved out of her parents' house and into an apartment in Cambridge with her girlfriend and her little girl so they could be near Hope's school. Constance had gone from being a sorority girl to a PhD student at BCU and Hope was at Harvard Medical School, which meant even though they were living together, they saw each other in passing on weeknights and occasionally on the weekends. Hope would return home well into the evening, leaving only mornings to see her little girl while they were both getting ready for school.

The baby girl that had been born two weeks before her first day of college was now just four months shy of her seventh birthday and nearly finished with first grade. Her teacher said Maura was the brightest kid in her class and she excelled in math and science. While the other children were learning addition and subtraction, Maura had mastered her multiplication tables all the way from one to ten. Her long hours on campus left Hope little time to spend with Maura, so she found a way to form a special bond with her daughter by leaving a note in Maura's lunchbox with words of encouragement and a science or math question. Sometime throughout the day, Maura would write down the answer and then put it on the kitchen table for Hope to find when she came home that night along with a note saying how much she loved her and how proud of her she was.

When she walked into their tiny apartment that night, she saw the sofa bed they purchased for the moments when Maura wanted to do her homework with them had been pulled out, and her little girl was fast asleep among Constance's notebooks and school supplies. Maura had her own bedroom, but she insisted on being next to Constance while she did her research; however, that night her girlfriend wasn't on the sofa bed in her pajamas like she usually was. The sound of the water running let her know her girlfriend was in the shower. She contemplated joining her. It had been weeks since the last time they showered together or did anything physical for that matter. She could slip in and surprise her and spend the rest of her night making up for lost time. Or she could hold the little girl who was now calling out to her.

"Mommy! Mommy, you're home!" Maura said excitedly. "I waited all night for you. Can you lie down with me?"

Hope gingerly moved her girlfriend's notebooks so she could lie down next to Maura. It was in that moment she realized that someone so tiny could bring her so much warmth and comfort. She held her as close as she could and took in the scent of cherry almond children's shampoo and bubble bath. Her little girl was freshly bathed and Hope made a mental note to do something special for Constance for taking such good care of their daughter and giving her a sense of normalcy while she was away. She wondered how Constance managed to do it all—how she managed to keep on top of her own schoolwork while running their household and making sure Maura was always clean and fed and entertained. Maura had never been a difficult child, but even the most well-behaved children required a lot of attention and she was so grateful that her daughter had not one, but two moms who loved her.

The change in pace of Maura's breathing let Hope know that her daughter was fast asleep again and, with another school day ahead of her, Hope knew she should let Maura get some rest. Realizing the five minutes she had spent with her was the most time they had spent together in days made Hope start to cry. First, a tear streamed down her cheek and then she felt herself start to sob uncontrollably. So as not to wake Maura, she got up from the sofa bed and made her way over to the kitchen. Her intention was to grab a granola bar or another type of light snack from the cupboard, but she couldn't bring herself to eat anything. Instead, Hope sat down on the kitchen floor with her back against the wall, covering her face with her hands.

"Hope?" she heard her girlfriend ask. "Sweetheart, what's wrong?"

"She's growing up so fast," Hope managed to say through her sobbing. "I'm missing out on so much with her and with you. When was the last time we even—it's been weeks."

Constance sat on the floor in front of her girlfriend and reached across so she could hold her hands. "You know that's never been the most important aspect of our relationship for me. Even if we never had sex again, I'd still be happy in our relationship. I don't have your libido, Hope." Her last comment managed to get a smile out of her girlfriend. "That's the smile I've been wanting to see. As for Maura, you have no need to worry. I've told her why you're at school so late and why you're always busy and she understands. Of course she misses you, but she's so proud of you and she wants to be just like you."

"She does?"

"She told me she wants to be a doctor when she grows up," Constance remarked, her fingers now intertwined with Hope's. "She even plays doctor with her stuffed animals. She divides her time between that and being my research assistant. I tell her what to highlight and where to place a post-it. I've taught her about different movements and styles of art and she says Pop Art is her favorite because it looks like cartoons."

The thought of her daughter calling Pop Art cartoons made Hope smile. "We have an incredibly cultured six-year-old."

"Maura's a child of diverse tastes," Constance added. "She told me Expressionism is her second favorite because she likes _The Scream_. I have a picture of her making the same face as the painting. It's framed in the T.A. office. The other teaching assistants thought it was the cutest thing."

Hope let go of her girlfriend's hands and motioned for her to sit next to her. She rested her head on Constance's shoulder, grateful for this moment with her. "I'm glad Maura has you. I'm glad _I _have you, too."

"You'll always have me."

"I love you."

"I love you, too," Constance responded before delicately kissing Hope's lips. "Did something happen at school today?"

Hope looked into her girlfriend's bright blue eyes. Her lack of makeup enabled Hope to see her freckles and her wet, curly hair was tied back in a messy ponytail. Although Constance was always well put together whenever she left the apartment, this was Hope's favorite look for her because it was a look that only she got to see. _I want to spend the rest of my life looking at her._

"I just don't feel...good enough," Hope responded, not knowing how long she had stared at her girlfriend before answering. "I've wanted this for as long as I can remember, but now that it's happening, I've never felt so overwhelmed. In high school, I stood out. As an undergraduate, I stood out. But in medical school, I don't feel like there's anything that sets me apart from anyone else."

Constance gave her an inquisitive look. "So, you feel...average?"

"Yes!"

"Welcome to mediocrity, darling," Constance tried to stifle her laughter. "Even if there's nothing mediocre about you. You're the most brilliant woman I've ever met."

"Do you ever feel this way?"

"Only every second I'm with my advisor," Constance smiled at her. "He's a rampant misogynist."

"You think every man in your department is a rampant misogynist," Hope pointed out.

"That's because they are. These men think everything they create is a work of genius and they think everything they write is so profound," Constance rolled her eyes. "The male graduate students in my department like to mansplain everything. One of them even mansplained mansplaining to me. I couldn't maintain my composure in that moment and I thought I'd die from laughing so much."

"How do you manage to do this?"

"Do what?"

"I came in here prepared to continue crying and continue feeling sorry for myself and then you make me forget everything that's bothering me."

Constance gave her a confused look. "Am I not supposed to do that?"

"No," Hope kissed her girlfriend's hand before maneuvering herself so she could lie on the floor. "You're supposed to just let me wallow in self-pity."

It went against everything in her nature, but Constance decided to lie down on the floor next to Hope. "We're 25 years old, Hope. I think we're just going through our quarter-life crisis. Nothing makes sense right now and we're not sure if we're living our lives right. We're accomplishing so much, but there's still that fear of missing out on other aspects of our lives. I think everyone our age is going through it and those that say they aren't are just too proud to admit it."

"As long as we can get through it together."

"We'll get through our quarter-life crisis together and then in twenty years we'll get through our mid-life crisis together."

"Do you promise?" Hope looked as her girlfriend nervously fumbled with something in the pocket of her pajama pants. "Connie, what are you doing? Are you okay?"

Constance sat up and wiped a tear that had fallen down her cheek. "I'm fine."

"You're not fine. You're crying." Hope sat up so she could hold her girlfriend. She looked at her right hand, shut tight as if she were clutching something.

"I'm just nervous."

"About?"

Constance reached for her girlfriend's left hand and gently slipped a diamond ring on her finger. "This."

"Connie! Is this…?" Hope stared at the ring in total disbelief.

"I told you we'll get through our quarter-life crisis together and our mid-life crisis together," Constance said nervously. "But I want you to know you and I can get through anything as long as we have each other. We've known each other since we were eighteen—we've grown up together and I want us to eventually grow old together. I never thought it was possible for me to love someone as much as I love you and I promise I will love you through anything and everything. Will you marry me?"

Hope lunged toward Constance and nearly knocked her over in the process. "Yes! Yes!" she said in between playfully kissing her lips and her cheeks.

"You're going to be my Mrs. Isles," Constance smiled at her. She pulled Hope further down so she was lying on top of her. "And I know Maura already thinks of me as her mother, but I want to do a second parent adoption. I want her to legally be my daughter. Since you're changing your name, I was thinking she could also change hers and be Maura Isles. I've already asked Maura and she said she wants to change her name if you change yours."

"Maura knows about this?"

"Maura has known for weeks about me proposing to you," Constance responded. She held Hope's left hand so she could admire how the ring looked on her. "She even helped me pick out your ring."

"Does anyone else know?"

"Your parents know. I took them out to lunch last month and that's when I asked them for their blessing."

"How very 1950s of you," Hope teased.

Constance gave her a half-smile. "It just seemed appropriate. Your mom is already excited about going wedding dress shopping with you. I can't wait to see how beautiful you're going to look in your dress."

"You, my future wife, are not allowed to see me in a wedding dress until I walk down the aisle," Hope said before kissing her fiancée. "Connie, we're getting married! Can you believe it? When are you going to tell your family?"

"I already told them and Victoria acted in true Victoria fashion," Constance responded in an annoyed tone of voice.

"Meaning?"

"She wants me to fly back home to London next month to go wedding dress shopping. She's already emailing me pictures of Vivienne Westwood dresses and she wants us to have our wedding at the manor. My mother said and I quote, 'Just leave all the planning up to me. We'll spare no expense, darling.'"

"You're annoyed that your mother is excited about you getting married and offering to take care of everything?" Hope asked, confused.

"Someday, when I'm ready, I'll tell you why I get so annoyed with her," Constance said before placing a kiss on Hope's cheek. "But tonight isn't about her. You don't have class tomorrow, so why don't we keep Maura home from school? You two can have a mother/daughter day. I'll get home in the evening and then we'll have family night. Maura's also been wanting to spend some time with your parents so I was thinking Saturday night**, **you and I–"

"Saturday night, you and I can really celebrate our engagement," Hope straddled her fiancée. "We have that bottle of wine we were saving to celebrate the end of the school year."

"We can drink that Saturday."

"Or I can lick it off of you?" Hope winked at her.

"Wouldn't that be wasting most of it?"

"What am I going to do with you?" Hope laughed. "I feel like there's so still so much for me to learn about you and I'm lucky enough to spend the rest of my lifetime learning. For starters, I didn't think my Connie who loves grand gestures would propose to me on the kitchen floor. It would have been more in your nature to propose to me in Paris in front of the Eiffel Tower."

"Too ordinary and predictable. Paris is the most romantic city in the world. It's easy to fall in love and be in love there. What you needed is for me to show you that I'd love you in moments like this and even when you're feeling at your lowest, I'll still be by your side. I've had this ring for weeks, just waiting for when you needed it the most. I heard you crying after I got out of the shower, so I got the ring from our bedroom and slipped it in my pocket."

Hope lied down next to her, holding her fiancée as close as she could. "My perfect woman."

"My perfect future wife."

* * *

Hope's first reaction to waking up in the middle of the night was to check the time on her phone. It was now 3 a.m. and everything was silent in her wife's childhood home except for some faint noises coming from down the hall. There was an empty space in bed where her wife had been just hours earlier when she fell asleep, so Hope made the assumption that her wife had gotten up to check on Cailin. When twenty minutes had passed and she had yet to return, Hope decided to trek down the hall and join in on whatever activity Constance had come up with to help Cailin fall asleep.

...but the further she walked down the hall, the more she heard the sound of someone shuffling through things in what she had assumed was an unoccupied bedroom.

Without knocking, she slowly opened the door and noticed her wife sitting on the floor in the middle of a dimly-lit room, shuffling through old photographs of herself that Hope had never seen before. Whenever she was shown childhood photos of her wife, there were some of her with her sisters or her on her birthday or Christmas, but these couldn't be further from what she had seen in the past.

"Connie?" Hope asked as she made her way closer to where her wife was sitting. "Honey, are you okay?"

Constance attempted to hide the fact that she had been crying. "...the modelling photos my mother talked about when we were outside, I think I'm ready to tell you what really happened."


	6. The Model Daughter and The Family Secret

**A/N: The HopeCon conversation about what happened to Constance as a teenager. Nothing too detailed, but trigger warning for mention of sexual assault of a minor. Thank you to MarCor3, Tingtorn78, Happy Days, and PowderPaula for reviewing the last chapter. Your reviews inspired me to keep going. This is a heavy chapter, so I promise there will be fluff in the upcoming chapters. :)**

For the past 18 years, Constance had managed to keep her secret from Hope, but her mother's revelation about her modelling "career" made what happened to her at age 13 resurface. She had managed to change the topic of conversation that night when she was lying in bed with her wife, but she knew it was only because her wife had taken the hint that she wasn't ready to talk about it. The conversation steered toward Baby Isles and ideas for names. Constance was set on Amelia for a girl and either Emory or Andrew for a boy while Hope was partial to Kennedy for a girl and Connor for a boy.

"You and your Irish names," Constance always joked with her whenever the subject of names was brought up. "You already got to name Maura and Cailin."

"You and your English names," Hope responded. "I can live with Andrew, but I am not naming our son Emory Isles."

"And Connor Isles is better?" Constance said with a half smile. "How about Cooper?"

Hope tucked a few strands of curly hair behind her wife's ear. "I think I need to accept the fact that I'm married to a proud English woman just like you're married to a woman who is proud of her Irish heritage. Maybe we can name our son Cooper, but only because I like the way that name sounds with your accent."

"You, my Mrs. Isles, still fetishize the way I talk," Constance said to her wife, placing delicate kisses along her neck. "But now we're in my country and I get to talk about your cute American accent."

"You know when you kiss my neck there's no going back."Hope lifted the hem of her wife's negligee. "...especially when you're wearing this."

Constance had expected her wife to keep her up well into the night but, Hope Martin Isles, the woman with the unrivaled libido, was fast asleep after ten minutes, leaving both of them unfinished. Realizing the long flight and time difference had done a number on her wife, Constance held her close and gently caressed her back. She smiled when she thought about how it'd only be a few short months before she couldn't hold her this close anymore and Hope's baby bump was between them.

The Isles house became quieter with each passing moment. Constance knew Cailin had been fast asleep for hours, but she hadn't expected silence from Jane and Maura's room. Even if they were in an entirely separate room from her, just knowing they were awake and having fun, filled her with comfort. Now that the house was completely silent, she wished she could wake up Hope. Her best friend was right by her side, yet she felt herself missing her. If Hope were awake, she'd have her favorite person to take her mind off of everything.

Left alone with her memories of growing up in that very house, Constance decided to get out of bed and explore one of the spare bedrooms that she and her sisters would spend most of their free time in together. The three sisters were incredibly close in age and Constance knew she was fortunate that they got along as if they were best friends instead of experiencing sibling rivalry.

Not wanting anyone else in her family to see her in something revealing that was meant for her wife's eyes only, she changed into the once dreaded (but now beloved) pair of leggings that Hope had made her wear for Thanksgiving and the slightly oversized sweater that Hope had worn on the plane. When Constance opened the door to the spare bedroom, it dawned on her how much time had passed since she and her siblings had all lived together under that roof and under their mother's rules. In the '80s, that room was a playroom complete with a tea set for them to have tea parties together and an armoire full of what the girls considered 'princess' clothes for them to wear whenever they wanted to play dress up. Instead of letting her girls be who they truly wanted to be, Victoria Isles insisted on them performing femininity in all aspects of their lives. Unlike other children at their school, they weren't allowed to ride bikes, go skating, or participate in any activities that could cause any injury or ruin their clothing. By the time the '90s approached, the girls were finished with tea parties and dress up and that room had become their hangout room complete with whatever entertainment systems were state of the art at that time and a massive music collection. It was the one place where they felt they could truly be themselves and talk about anything that came to mind and, most importantly, it was the one place Victoria Isles agreed to not enter.

The Isles girls felt restricted and confined by their mother's need to control every aspect of their lives, so it didn't come as a shock to the two younger girls when Constance's eldest sister Margaret announced during a family dinner that she was leaving London to attend BCU. In 1995, Margaret was the first to leave, followed by Constance in '96 and their youngest sister Camilla in '97. While at BCU, they were all in the same sorority and lived under the same roof again in the Kappa Gamma Phi house, but university life enabled them to grow into their own personalities and, although they spent plenty of time together, most of Constance's focus had shifted over to Hope. From the moment the two of them became a couple, Constance's sisters knew she'd have no intention of moving back to London after graduation.

With the Martin family, she had stability and a second set of parents that reminded her of the parents she saw in American sitcoms. Mr. Martin was what would be considered a stereotypical dad who said things like, "Way to go, Champ" or "Rock 'n roll, Sport," whenever his sons did something to make him proud. Hope was his "sweetheart" or his "princess" and the one person who could do no wrong regardless of what she got up to. Mr. and Mrs. Martin loved all three of their kids unconditionally and, although their kids were now in their 30s and had families of their own, they still got together every Sunday for Sunday dinner.

Living in London enabled her sisters to see their parents every two or three weeks and, although they hadn't quite forgiven Victoria for how she had raised them, they were trying to make a fresh start with her for their own sake. Constance, on the other hand, felt as if her relationship with her mother was beyond repair after what she had done to her when she was thirteen.

With that thought running through her head, Constance walked over to the closet. Hidden in a storage bin with some old sorority memorabilia was a box slightly bigger than a shoebox filled with photographs and an old preteen magazine.

Unlike the photographs she had shown to Hope throughout the years, these were the parts of her life that she had planned on hiding from her wife and anyone else that had become part of her life since leaving London. She contemplated ripping them up and throwing them away and she wondered whether it was unfinished business that compelled her to keep those photographs.

When Hope stood in the doorway, she knew she had been caught and there was no hiding that part of her life from her anymore.

"Connie?" Hope asked as she made her way closer to where her wife was sitting. "Honey, are you okay?"

Constance attempted to hide the fact that she had been crying. "...the modelling photos my mother talked about when we were outside, I think I'm ready to tell you what really happened."

Hope attempted to hug her and, for the first time in their relationship, Constance rejected her affections. "I don't want to be hugged or touched right now."

For the sake of her wife, Hope hid the fact that her feelings were hurt. "I won't touch you until you tell me I can."

"I'm not used to being this vulnerable around you."

"I'm your wife," Hope reminded her. "You're safe with me and you can tell me as much or as little as you want to."

Constance handed her the preteen magazine first. "It started with this."

It was a magazine published in America whose target audience was girls between the ages of 11-14－girls who were too old for children's magazines but not quite old enough for teen magazines aimed at high school aged girls. Every issue had the latest age-appropriate fashion, advice about middle school, friends, and crushes, and interviews with teen celebrities. The particular issue Constance handed her was a back-to-school issue from September 1990. "I had a subscription to this magazine when I was in middle school," Hope said as she flipped through the pages. "Did he work for－"

"No," Constance interrupted. "There's no way someone like him could work for that magazine. Turn to page 44."

Hope turned to a back-to-school fashion spread called "The London Look" and there, on page 44, was her wife at age 12. "Connie, I can't believe this is you," Hope said excitedly. "I had this issue and I thought this girl was so cute! Who was to imagine I'd end up marrying the cute girl from the magazine."

"I had so much fun during that photoshoot," Constance said, smiling for the first time during their conversation.

Hope revelled in the innocence of the photoshoot. Because it was a magazine whose target audience was middle school girls, twelve-year-old Constance was without any makeup except for some pink lipgloss. Instead of the overly staged photos found in fashion magazines, these were mainly action shots and Hope couldn't stop smiling when she focused on the first one. There was a 12-year-old version of her wife in a black spandex minidress, slightly oversized light pink denim jacket, and white L.A. Gear shoes with pink and black scrunched socks and pink and black shoelaces. Her curly hair was in a sideways ponytail with teased bangs and around her neck was a long, chunky pink necklace and the lightning bolt earrings she was wearing competed the ensemble. In the photo, which was taken at a shopping center, she had a shopping bag in one hand and her Sony Walkman in the other. On the bottom corner of the page was a little blurb about what brands of clothing Constance was wearing and how readers could get that look followed by her answering their question of what's her favorite thing to do on the weekend. "_I have to wear a uniform to school. It's quite boring. I love weekends because I can wear anything I want and go shopping. Shopping is my favorite hobby and the best city in the world to go shopping is London."_

"Connie, this is the cutest thing I've ever seen," Hope smiled at her. "I know I saw this when I was 12, but seeing these pictures from the perspective of a woman in her thirties is just－you were absolutely adorable."

"I would have loved modelling if it was just that," Constance averted her eyes. "I remember I was at a cafe with my parents and my sisters and we were approached by a woman named Kelly. She was 24 or 25, I believe. Her personality was so quirky and fun. She apologized for interrupting and told us she was visiting from New York and she worked for a magazine there. The magazine wasn't available outside of America, so she gave copies of the most recent issue to my sisters and me and she told my parents that they were going to do a photoshoot in London and she wanted me to be a part of it. She assured them everything would be age-appropriate and they could even attend if they wanted to. When she told me that in addition to getting paid for the photoshoot, I'd get to keep the clothes, my sisters and I couldn't contain our excitement. The three of us were so loud that we caught the attention of everyone in the cafe." Remembering that last detail made Constance smile. "I literally begged my mother and father to let me do it and they gave Kelly an answer right then and there. The photoshoot took place two months later and both of my parents attended as well as my sisters. So my sisters wouldn't feel left out, Kelly let them both pick an outfit and she took a picture of the three of us. It wasn't going in the magazine, but she thought my mother might want a memento of her girls at a real photoshoot. She never did hang it up."

"Let's find it while we're staying here," Hope insisted. "I want to put it up at our house."

"I wouldn't even know where to begin looking. I had assumed since my mother was a model she would be proud of me, but she was unimpressed by the photo shoot. It wasn't what she was used to. There was nobody saying any ridiculous cliches like 'Make love to the camera.' Instead, to get me to laugh or smile, Kelly would say 'Okay, Connie, smile like it's the last day of school' or 'Smile like you just won a lifetime supply of ice cream.' I was having the time of my life and even my father was pleased with the way they handled everything. Afterward, he hugged me for the first time in ages and then he took my sisters and me out for a father/daughter night. I remember he told us, 'I'd be honored to escort the three loveliest girls in all of London.' We were actually...happy, and then it all changed when we got home. Victoria didn't want me wasting my time on this and she insisted on getting me in touch with some of the people she worked with when she was a model. She wanted me in high fashion and I reminded her that I was twelve and I didn't want a modelling career. I just wanted to have fun."

Hope noticed her wife's demeanor change when the story finished. "Connie, if you don't want to continue－"

"I can continue," Constance insisted. "...Victoria dropped the subject until I was thirteen. That's when I was walking home from school with my sisters and we were approached by...him...I can't even say his name. He said he was a photographer and told us what models he's photographed and my sisters were absolutely awestruck. He gave me his card and, when he left, Margaret went on about how that was exactly how Naomi Campbell was discovered and how I was going to be just like her. I didn't want to give it a second thought, but as soon as we got home, Margaret and Camilla told Mother what happened. I had never seen her so excited about anything related to her children before. I had a bad feeling about him and I told her I didn't want to do it, but she didn't care. She called him right away and, when we met with him for the first time, she told him all about her modelling experiences and they talked about mutual acquaintances in the industry. He was a legitimate photographer and he had an impressive resume. He had worked for American Vogue and British Vogue and that's all my mother needed to hear in order to leave her thirteen-year-old daughter alone with him. My mother told you he thought I was sixteen. That was a lie. He knew I was thirteen. He knew I was thirteen the entire time and he knew I was apprehensive, so he groomed me." Constance angrily slammed her hand on one of the photographs. "He knew exactly what he was doing and I hate him for it."

Hope picked up the photograph as soon as her wife lifted her hand up. Unlike the photoshoot in the teen magazine, there was nothing playful or innocent about it. The thirteen-year-old version of her wife was made up to look as if she were a twenty-five-year-old woman. She had a seductive look on her face, her lips slightly parted. She may not have been wearing any revealing clothing, but the way she was posed made Hope feel uneasy.

"That one was published," Constance pointed out. "I didn't bother keeping the magazine. Victoria did and she bragged to all of her friends that her daughter was following in her footsteps and was going to be famous like Naomi Campbell or Cindy Crawford. I was recognized a few times and I hated it. I wanted to be finished with all of this and go back to my normal life. That's when he started taking this beyond a professional relationship. He started giving me special treatment. He'd call me every night and talk to me for hours at a time. He told me how much he missed me when we were apart and how much he thought about me. He called me his girl and said he couldn't believe how mature I was for my age－classic lines of a grown man who is grooming a young girl. He'd take me to parties and introduce me to other people in the industry. I have to admit I was a bit starstruck when I met some of the famous models of the time. They treated me like a little sister and I loved it until I found out what really went on at parties. There were so many drugs everywhere and alcohol and, although I felt uncomfortable and never touched any of it, I didn't want to stop being around the other girls. They were so beautiful and the next time I was alone with him, he teased me about liking girls. He said two women having sex is the most beautiful thing and he would love to see me with another girl."

"Stop," Hope said angrily. "Connie, please tell me that's where it ended."

Constance sifted through some more of the photographs and then handed one in particular to Hope. "This is where it ended. He dropped this one off after everything happened and I still don't know why I kept it."

Hope looked at it in disgust and then immediately put it face down next to her. "I think I'm going to be sick. I can't look at this anymore" The photograph that had been in her hand was one of Constance posed on a bed in a sheer white negligee. "Oh my god, Connie, this wasn't even meant to be published. You weren't advertising any clothing or accessories. This was for him, for his own sick pleasure. You didn't have a full face of makeup on like in the other photos and you weren't overdeveloped like your mom said you were. You were thirteen and you look thirteen. Compare your face in that photo to how you looked at eighteen. You still have a baby face here."

"He likes them young," Constance responded, too ashamed to even look at her wife. "Not even the barely legal type. He's attracted to girls between the ages of eleven and fourteen. He's a pedophile and everyone in the industry is aware of it, but nobody ever held him accountable for it. There were women there at my photoshoots and at the parties who were aware of what he had planned to do to me and nobody even tried to stop him. When he took that picture, he completely changed. That day, he made sure there was no one else in the studio other than the two of us. After he finished with the photoshoot, he got on the bed next to me and asked if there were any girls at school I was interested in. I said it didn't matter if there were because I wasn't allowed to date yet. He kept trying to get my mind on girls and sex and, when I said I wasn't ready for any of that, he told me there was something I could do until I was ready. I was so naive. He asked if I trusted him and I said yes. He touched me...somewhere only _you _are able to touch me...but then he didn't stop with that. He told me he couldn't stop and he had wanted me from the moment he first saw me." Constance could no longer keep herself from crying. It wouldn't have been the first time Hope had seen her cry, but she was so disgusted with herself and so ashamed that she hid her face with her hands. "He knew how much it hurt, so he tried to comfort me by saying 'it'll only hurt this time. I promise you it won't hurt the next time we do this and the more experience you get, the more you'll enjoy it' and he even had the audacity to say that he loved me and this is what two people do when they're in love. I don't know how long it lasted. I tried to pretend I was somewhere－anywhere－other than on that bed. When it was over, he told me to go to the bathroom so I could get cleaned up. He even ordered takeaway for us as if nothing had happened and he wanted me to spend the evening with him. I was too afraid to leave so I obliged. When he drove me home, he said we could be a couple and we'd just have to keep our relationship a secret until I turned sixteen. As if he would have still been interested in me when I was sixteen. I ran into him at a coffee shop when I was eighteen－during that winter break when you and I first became a couple－and he looked at me as if I were so tainted and undesirable because I was eighteen now and not the thirteen-year-old girl that he remembered."

"And you told your parents this?" Hope asked. "You told your parents this and then your dad and his friends killed this man. Connie, _I _want to kill this man."

"I told my parents," Constance said solemnly. "Victoria said these are the kind of things that happen if a woman leads a man on and I must have given him the wrong signals. My father was more concerned about anything scandalous being associated with the Isles name so he just swept it under the rug and didn't want to get any law enforcement involved. They carried on as if nothing had happened, so I did the same."

"I need to talk to your mom, both of your parents. I need to ask them why－when their sweet little girl told them she was raped by a man more than three times her age－they didn't do all they could to help her. Not just that, but they blamed their innocent little girl for what this man did to her." Hope stood up, prepared to leave the room until Constance stood up and stopped her.

"No!" Constance said and held onto her wife. "Please just stay here with me."

"I won't leave you," Hope promised. "Is it okay if I hold you, too?"

"Please do." Constance cried into her wife's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry about so many things. I"m sorry I lied to you. I'm sorry you weren't my first. I'm sorry he's been inside me and I've never allowed you to be－"

"You have nothing to be sorry about," Hope insisted. "None of this was your fault."

"But I shouldn't have－"

"No," Hope said sternly. "He was forty and you were thirteen. You were a child. Nothing that happened was your fault."

"You were my first kiss, though," Constance pointed out. "That whole time he－he didn't kiss me, so you and I still have that."

Hope held her as tight as she could. "What do you mean we still have that? You and I have everything. We have our entire lives together. What he did to you doesn't count as your first time. Your first time was with me, the week before your 20th birthday. Remember, we got a hotel room and after we made love for the first time, we ate chocolate cupcakes in bed and watched _Daria_. And then we did it again. And then we got in the shower and attempted to do it again in the shower."

"That night, we discovered that shower sex was completely overrated and had a bubble fight instead."

Hope dried her wife's tears. "Sweetheart, _that night_ was your first time and you were so loved. I love you every single moment of every single day. As much as I want to, I can't hold that thirteen-year-old version of you and make everything better for her, but I can hold the woman she is today and let her know that I will always stand by her. Like you said when you proposed, Connie, I'm going to love you through anything and everything."

"I don't know where I'd be without you."

"You never have to worry about that," Hope reassured her. "But promise me something?"

"Anything."

"Before we go back home, we're going to have a talk with your mother."

Constance buried her face in her wife's shoulder. "Anything but that. We're not like your family, Hope. We don't show emotion in my family and we don't talk about our feelings."

"Spoken like a true WASP," Hope teased. "I don't like your mother right now. In fact, I hate what she did to you－what they both did to you. This isn't for her sake. I couldn't care less about how she feels. The fact that you were crying and apologizing to me about this shows that you haven't healed, Connie. I want you to talk to her for _your _sake. I want you to get everything out and start the path toward healing, not just covering it up. If it'll help, I'll be by your side the entire time. I will do whatever it takes to help you get through this."

"Hope, I'm fine," Constance insisted. "In the nearly two decades we've been together, I never gave you any inclination that something was wrong."

"I can't force you."

"You can't," Constance agreed. "But I appreciate you being there."

Although it was now 5 a.m., neither of them could fall asleep when they returned to their bed. Constance knew Hope could convince her to do just about anything, so she wondered if she'd eventually convince her to have a talk with her mother and take that first step. She contemplated whether she should get out of bed, but that thought was interrupted by a half-asleep four-year-old standing in the doorway.

"Mommy and Mommy, can I sleep with you?" Cailin asked while clutching her teddy bear.

Although they preferred Cailin get used to sleeping in a room by herself, after the conversation they had about what happened to Constance, neither of them had the heart to be the kind of mother that didn't let their little girl sleep next to them. "Climb aboard," Hope told her and Cailin wasted no time before making herself comfortable in between them.

No more than five minutes had passed when the two of them were interrupted yet again. This time, by two teenagers who wanted to run some dinner plans by them. Maura took it upon herself to sit at the foot of their bed and Jane made herself comfortable on a rocking chair.

"Jane and I came up with a plan," Maura said excitedly. "Since Cailin is going to spend the night with Aunt Margaret and our cousins tomorrow night and you said Jane and I could pick where we want to have family dinner and, keep in mind this is Jane's first time in London…"

"We were thinking we could go to a pub," Jane said, trying to remain hopeful. "As Maura brought to your attention, this is my first time in London and it would be a real, cultural experience for me."

"Jane Clementine Rizzoli," Hope lectured her. "Would your mother even allow you to go to a pub? And, before you ask, your mother told me your middle name so I could use it whenever I saw fit."

"It's like Ma is lecturing me from across the Atlantic Ocean," Jane shook her head. "My mom only said she doesn't like underage drinking. In America, I'm underage, but here in England, the legal drinking age is 18. Therefore, Maura and I aren't underage, and my mom wouldn't be against it."

Hearing what Jane and Maura were scheming brought a smile to Constance's face. "My goodness, they found a loophole," she said to her wife.

"We did this to ourselves when we said they could pick where we have dinner," Hope pointed out. "And, I hate to admit it, but it _is _safer if they have some drinks while we're there with them instead of them being on their own. Judging by how these two can't even remember the day they met because of how intoxicated they were, it's probably best if you and I are there."

"If you two aren't comfortable going, Jane and I could always go by ourselves," Maura insisted. "We wouldn't want to force the two of you to go somewhere you don't want to go."

Hope covered her mouth in a failed attempt at controlling her laughter. "Oh, there is no way we are letting the two of you go drinking by yourselves at this age in a major city."

"However, we applaud your efforts," Constance added.

She looked at all three of her girls on the bed. Her four-year-old was still clinging to her and fast-asleep although they were sitting up and her adoring wife on the other side of the bed was just months away from bringing their third child into the world. Although Maura was at the age when she was trying to assert herself as an adult and find her place in the world, Constance knew she had absolutely nothing to worry about when it came to Maura's safety and well-being because, even if she couldn't always be there, she knew Jane wasn't going to let anything happen to Maura. She was the type of person they always wanted for their daughter and they were so grateful she had come into Maura's life and theirs.

Constance's wife and daughters and Baby Isles were her reason for living and, although she planned on never telling her children what had happened to her, she wanted to start in the direction toward healing so she could be the best version of herself for them and for the woman she felt so fortunate to spend the rest of her life with.


	7. The Isles Twins and Jane Versus Shopping

**A/N: Thank you to Joannrbb, Vanilla, Tingtorn78, Happy days, MarCor3, DEEG1291, and sweetkid45 for the reviews. You've inspired me to keep going. I'm sorry if the last chapter was a bit hard to read, so I promise more fluff from now. Most importantly, I hope everyone is staying safe out there.**

Jane and Maura returned to their bed a few minutes after convincing Maura's parents to let them go to a pub for family dinner. It was 5:30 in the morning and, so as not to waste what little time they had left in London before going to the manor, Maura was wide awake and eager to get their day started. She had an itinerary planned for them so they could maximize Jane's time, but not even the excitement of London or the possibility of early morning shower sex could get Jane Rizzoli to give up her sleep.

It was 7 a.m. by the time Jane woke up and Maura was already showered and dressed. She had yet to put on her makeup, mainly due to the smell of crepes downstairs. Like she did every first morning of their visit, her grandmother was getting ready to make crepes for her granddaughters. Grandma Victoria wasn't the type of woman to cook a meal for her family, but she enjoyed making desserts, and she considered crepes the perfect combination of breakfast and dessert. Maura knew her sister Cailin would want a Nutella and banana crepe and Maura felt as if she could already taste her usual strawberry and Nutella crepe.

With Jane still in her pajamas, the girls rushed downstairs and found Maura's grandmother in the kitchen, already dressed for the day and her makeup perfectly applied.

"Good morning, Grandmother," Maura said and gave her a hug.

"Good morning, darling," Victoria Isles responded. "Good morning to you, too, Jane. Cailin is already eating in the dining room. I was waiting on you two to place your orders. Maura, I'm assuming you want what I usually make for you. Jane, what would you like?"

The sight of the Nutella made Jane excited for breakfast and grateful that she wouldn't have to eat granola or something from the health food store like she did at Maura's house. "I'll have the same as Maura."

"Where's my little girl?" Victoria asked.

Maura nibbled on one of the extra sliced strawberries. "You said Cailin is in the dining room."

"I meant, _my _little girl," Victoria responded. "Where's Constance? She was supposed to meet me here an hour ago. She's probably still getting ready. Out of all three of my girls, she's my Miss Perfect...perfect hair, perfect makeup, perfectly dressed. Margaret is always in stuffy, business attire and Camilla cares more about what's comfortable and trendy than having a sense of style. My Constance is a woman of class and, Maura, you're following in her footsteps in that sense. I think Jane would agree."

Jane kissed Maura's cheek. "Maura is very classy...until she starts chugging Everclear from a bottle."

"Jane!" Maura said in disbelief.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of, darling," Victoria told her blushing granddaughter. "I was a teenager in the '60s and in the modelling industry at that. None of those little fraternity parties could even compare. I went to parties with members of the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin－"

"You partied with Jimmy Page?" Jane asked in disbelief. "He's one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived."

Maura recalled how just last night, Jane had been unnerved by the comments her grandmother had made. She knew her girlfriend's change in demeanor was only because she was a fan of classic rock bands but, regardless, she was grateful for the lack of tension during their conversation.

"He's brilliant, isn't he?" Victoria responded. "I may be an old woman now, but I was a knockout in the '60s and '70s and I had my fair share of pop stars and rock stars that I...spent time...with."

Maura knew exactly what 'spent time' was a euphemism for and she couldn't believe her grandmother was revealing that information to them. "You're still beautiful," Maura told her.

"I can thank botox and an incredibly gifted plastic surgeon for that," Victoria responded. She handed Jane and Maura their breakfast and Maura watched as Jane licked some Nutella off of her own finger. "My girls are all approaching their late thirties now. They're at the prime age for botox injections－you're supposed to get them before any wrinkles set in－but only Camilla has any intention of getting them regardless of how much I warn them about waiting too long. I suppose Margaret and Constance are naive enough to think their spouses won't leave them for younger women in ten or fifteen years."

It was in that moment that Jane stopped paying attention to her Nutella. "With all due respect," Jane began. "I don't think Hope has any intention of leaving your daughter. I've never seen a couple as love or as in sync as they are. They set a great example for me and Maura and I hope the two of us are fortunate enough to get to spend our lives together."

"You are a fiery young woman," Victoria said to Jane in a tone that Maura hoped Jane wouldn't think was patronizing. "I can see why my granddaughter adores you."

"...Jane and I are going to eat in the dining room with Cailin," Maura said hesitantly. "Thank you for breakfast, Grandmother."

"You're welcome, darling," Victoria responded. "Come to my room before you leave for the day. I have a gift for you and Jane."

* * *

Constance snuck into the bathroom while her wife was in the shower. Shower sex was out of the question for the two of them ever since the first time they tried it right before Constance's 20th birthday. Maybe it was because they were inexperienced at the time, but it felt awkward for the two of them and they ended up having the time of their lives with a bubble fight instead. Ever since then, showering together was either foreplay, a means of saving time or, as it was that morning, a way for Constance to see her wife's newly-appeared baby bump.

For the past week, her wife had worn thick sweaters which covered her baby bump and Hope had left her camisole on during the ten minutes in which they had attempted to make love to each other the night before. She remembered the first time she saw Hope's baby bump when she was pregnant with Cailin. Every week during the remainder of her pregnancy, she'd have Hope pose next to a chalkboard with a couple of facts about fetal development during that particular week and messages from both of them for their then-'Baby Isles' written in colorful chalk. Hope had teased her about it being the most Pinterest thing she had ever done, but both her mom and Hope's mom enjoyed the weekly updates and Constance loved showing off how happy and beautiful her wife looked.

...but this time around, Hope didn't have that same pregnancy glow. She didn't have the same energy and excitement she had with Cailin and, this time around, her morning sickness lasted well into the afternoon.

"I'm not 32 like I was with Cailin or 18 like I was with Maura," Hope would remind her. "I'll be 37 when Baby Isles is born. I'm considered advanced maternal age, but I promise you I'm going to take care of myself and Baby Isles and I'm taking all of the necessary tests for pregnant women over 35."

Constance trusted her wife completely but even though Hope was a doctor and knew more about pregnancy than she did, as her wife it would be in her nature to worry and she wished Hope would be more open with her about this pregnancy and what was happening.

"You're showing!" Constance said excitedly. Her robe and pajamas were already folded and placed neatly next to the sink, but Constance had hesitated to get in.

"Only for the past few days and my baby bump isn't visible once I put clothes on," Hope pointed out. "And, Connie, please get in the shower instead of slightly opening the shower curtain and peeking your head through."

When Constance stepped into the shower, her first instinct was to hug her wife. The two of them would usually kiss for a minute or more before going about their usual shower routine, switching spots when it was time for one of them to rinse the shampoo or conditioner off of their hair, but this time there was only a single kiss before Hope told her wife not to hug her.

"Is everything okay?" Constance asked, placing her hand on Hope's baby bump instead of hugging her.

"No hugging for awhile," Hope insisted. "In fact, a lot of things are going to be off limits for awhile."

"Oh," Constance responded. She remembered this talk from the last time Hope was pregnant. Near the end of her first trimester, Hope's breasts would become sore and tender to the point where even the slightest bit of pressure would cause her pain. Constance thought it was a cruel twist of fate that when her wife's breasts were at their fullest was the same time when she had to keep her hands and lips off of them.

"No grabbing them, no touching them, no kissing them or caressing them," Hope listed. "And it'll be more comfortable for me if I'm on top during sex."

"_I_ have self-control," Constance reminded her. "_You _are the one that likes to grab when you're on top." She took Hope's favorite oatmeal soap from the soap dish and moved behind her. It was part of their usual shower routine; she'd rub soap on Hope's back and then place delicate kisses on her shoulders. "Can I still hug you from behind?"

"You always have permission to hug me from behind and hold me." Hope closed her eyes, taking in the feeling of her wife's touch. "Are you feeling okay this morning?"

"It's nothing a morning alone with my beautiful wife can't fix. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," Hope reassured her. "What matters right now is helping you. Maura is going to be out having the time of her life exploring London with Jane. Cailin gets to spend the next forty-eight hours playing with her cousins. Despite the morning sickness and fatigue, I'm healthy. The babies are healthy－"

"Babies?" Constance interrupted.

"I didn't say babies."

"Yes, you did."

"I said the baby's healthy," Hope insisted.

"No," Constance wrapped her arms around her wife's waist from behind. "You said the babies are healthy. I know when you're lying to me, Hope."

Hope tried not to be emotional, but her ruined plans had become too much for her. "This isn't how I wanted to tell you, though. I had something special and romantic planned for the two of us. Instead of Baby Isles, it's the Isles Twins."

Hearing her wife say those words hit Constance harder than she thought it would. "Oh, dear god."

Hope tried not to be offended. "Is that how you feel about this?"

"No, of course not," she responded, She moved over to face her wife, her hands on Hope's waist because she could no longer hug her. "I mean...what I mean is...oh, dear god, there's going to be two of them. How are we going to do this?"

"There's also two of us," Hope reminded her. "If we could handle raising a baby when we were teenagers with zero experience and still had to worry about midterms and final exams, I think we're more than capable of raising twins now. And we have the most wonderful support system. Yes, there's twice the diaper changes and twice the midnight feedings and twice the crying, but there's also twice the love, twice the cuddles, and two tiny little versions of you in the world. I know you've told me it doesn't matter that our girls don't have your DNA, but there's a reason I wanted you to freeze your eggs three years ago."

"Anything else you're hiding from me, my Mrs. Isles?" Being careful not to cause Hope any discomfort, Constance leaned in to kiss her wife. "I love you and I know you and I can handle anything together, including two newborns."

That single kiss turned into another and then another until they were interrupted by the sound of their four-year-old daughter's voice. "Mommy and Mommy, what are you doing?" Cailin asked, her head peeking through an opening in the shower curtain.

"Cailin, sweetie, close your eyes!" Hope said frantically.

Startled by her mom's reaction, Cailin immediately left the bathroom.

"We've just traumatized our daughter," Constance told her wife. "We've traumatized our daughter not more than a minute after saying we can handle anything."

"Honey, go after her," Hope insisted.

Constance shut off the water in the shower. "You expect me to dry off and get dressed in time to chase after a small child? Besides, you're better at these types of conversations. Whatever I say to Cailin will probably make the situation worse."

"What could be worse than her telling your mother or telling Jane and Maura?"

Realizing her wife was right, Constance dried herself off as quickly as she could and put her robe on. "Cailin?" she called out, hoping her daughter was in her bedroom playing. She stood in the doorway of the room Cailin slept in whenever they visited her parents' house, but much to her horror, it was empty. "Cailin?" she called out again.

"I sent her downstairs to make sure she has everything ready to take to Margaret's house," Constance heard her mother call out from her parents' bedroom. "Constance, I need you to come here."

Constance stood in the doorway of her parents' bedroom. "I can't, Mother. I have to speak to Cailin."

"About you and Hope kissing in the shower?" Victoria motioned for her daughter to sit next to her on the bed. "Constance Magdalen Isles, I brought you into this world. The least you can do is spend five minutes with me." Constance would have left if not for the pleading look in her mother's eyes. She took a seat next to her mother, but merely being next to her was not enough for Victoria, She wrapped her arm around Constance and let her daughter rest her head on her shoulder, not caring that her daughter's wet hair was soaking her expensive blouse.

"I need to talk to Cailin," Constance insisted, although she didn't want to leave her mother's embrace. For the first time since she was a small child, her mother was trying to comfort her.

Victoria kissed her daughter's forehead. "I told Cailin, 'Your mommies love each other very much and what they were doing is what all married couples do to make each other feel loved.' I asked if she had any other questions. She said no and then went downstairs to make sure her overnight bag was ready to go. You have nothing to worry about, Constance. Cailin is going to be alright. Children her age can't comprehend what you two were doing and they'll accept any explanation you give. On the other hand, if your eighteen-year-old daughter would have caught you, she would have been traumatized and unable to have sex with her girlfriend ever again." Victoria absentmindedly played with her daughter's wet, curly hair. "Thank you for letting me hold you. I know you don't like to be held by anyone that isn't your wife."

"I'm not letting you hold me because I forgive you," Constance pointed out. "I'm just scared right now and I don't want Hope to know because I'm supposed to be strong for her. I had never imagined myself being a mother before I met Hope. Raising Maura was easy for us. It was just our family of three until Maura was 14 and Hope lived with her parents until Maura was nearly four years old. Even if I wasn't living with them, Judy was always there. In a few months, we'll have a five-year-old and two newborns. I'm worried I'll fail them and fail Hope. I've never seen her this exhausted."

"I told you she was having twins," Victoria said as she held her close. "If you're worried, imagine how _she _feels. She's the one that's going to give birth and experience so many physical changes. You, my dear girl, have never given birth. Being exhausted is normal and pregnancy symptoms are even worse with twins. Keep in mind that your wife is an OB/GYN, she knows exactly how to take care of herself and she knows what's normal during pregnancy. If there were something to worry about, Hope would tell you. You both are good mothers and you're not going to experience this alone. Do you honestly think Judy is going to leave the two of you alone?"

"She never has," Constance smiled.

"I don't live 30 minutes away like Judy, but I can fly to Boston at least once a month to help you with my grandbabies and to take care of you."

"I don't need to be taken care of."

"It's never too late for me to start mothering you," Victoria pointed out. "And while we're on that subject, you and I need to have a talk. I heard you and Hope last night. I heard you tell her about him. I know you're both upset with me and with good reason."

"Hope thinks it's important that we talk about what happened. I let her know we do things differently in our family."

"And where has silence gotten us?" Victoria asked. "You, Hope, and I are going to talk tomorrow. I know Cailin is waiting impatiently to go to Margaret's, so I'll take her for you and I want you and Hope to have some time alone. Even if she's too exhausted to do anything other than lie in bed, I still want you to spoil her."

Constance looked around her parents' bedroom. "When I was afraid to sleep alone as a child, you never let me sleep in here with the two of you. In fact, this is the longest I've ever been in your room. One conversation isn't going to erase years of benign neglect. I want my children to have you in their lives and I'm grateful for your efforts with them, but it's too late for you and me. I only stay at this house when I'm in London because of my children and because of Hope. She's incredibly family-oriented and I know deep down she wants my family to be as close as hers. Honestly, I'd rather be with the Martins right now." Constance stood up and straightened out her robe. "Thank you for taking Cailin. I'm going to check on her before she leaves."

* * *

Before heading out to explore the city, Jane and Maura were given a gift from Maura's grandmother－an envelope containing £1,000, with instructions for them to spend some of it on an outfit for Jane to wear for the holiday party and the rest of it was for them to spend on an adventure in the city.

"We are _not _shopping in South Kensington," Jane told Maura as the two of them walked down the steps in front of the Isles house. "We're buying something inexpensive for me to wear and then spending the rest on something fun."

Maura put the money securely in her purse. "As much as I'd love to see you in designer clothes perfectly tailored to you, it _is _our first vacation together and I'd also prefer to have fun with this money."

"Maura Isles choosing fun over shopping? I'm impressed."

Maura grabbed her girlfriend's hand as they made their way along the sidewalk. "Is there anything we should take home to your family?"

"Pop just wants some beer, Ma wants tea from Harrods, Tommy wants something he could give Lydia to impress her when he finally gets the nerve to ask her to be his girlfriend, and Frankie wants a sixteen-year-old version of your mother."

"That is...disturbing." Maura laughed.

"Oh, and Coral wants me to bring home Prince Harry or…" Jane hesitated while she pulled out her phone and read Coral's text. "...another man of equal handsomeness and wealth."

Maura leaned into Jane, hoping her girlfriend would put her arm around her waist. Just as she had wanted, Jane held her close as they walked to the South Kensington station.

"Harrods is on the Knightsbridge stop. That's not far from here," Maura pointed out. "We can get a gift for your mom and something for Tommy to give Lydia and then we can go to Soho to find something for you to wear. Afterward, we'll drop off our shopping bags and go to the London Eye."

"This is way too much shopping," Jane groaned.

Maura inserted her credit card into the machine and loaded some money onto Oyster cards so the two of them could take the Tube. "I'll make it worthwhile for you."

Jane was intrigued. "How?"

"I bought something for you to wear."

"Great!" Jane said excitedly. "You bought something for me to wear so now we can do less shopping."

"It's something for you to wear only with me." Maura leaned in to whisper in Jane's ear. "Something for you to wear when you're _inside _me tonight."

It was enough to make Jane start blushing. Between shopping, the London Eye and meeting Maura's parents at the pub, they had a full day ahead of them and Maura was elated to spend every second of it in her favorite city with her favorite person.


	8. A Big Ferris Wheel and An Average Genius

**A/N: Thank you Vanilla, bostonbookie, Tingtorn78, MarCor3, sweetkid45, and DEEG1291 for the reviews. I really appreciate your kind words. I hope everyone reading this is staying safe and healthy and if any of you need to talk or vent about what's going on, I'm just a PM away. Writing Jane/Maura and Hope/Constance has been my escape over the past few weeks, so I felt like both couples deserved some fluff. As always, thank you for reading. :)**

While waiting for everyone to leave, Hope finished her shower, brushed her teeth, and debated applying her makeup, but her sudden lack of energy after showering enabled her to do little more than scroll through social media apps on her phone. Her wife was a private person who used social media solely for the purpose of communicating with her students via Twitter. Constance refused to get a Facebook or Instagram account; however, Hope posted enough for the two of them and she was about to post a childhood photo of her wife when a text message came through.

"_Come to our room now. My mother talked to Cailin and our daughter isn't traumatized._"

Hope was about to respond when she received yet another message from Constance. "_If you post twelve-year-old me on Instagram, we're divorcing._"

Hope exited the Instagram app. _How did she know?_

Now that she had received the okay from her wife to exit the bathroom, Hope walked over to their bedroom feeling grateful that she'd be able to avoid contact with Victoria and any embarrassing questions from Cailin.

She recalled the previous times Constance had waited for her in that same bedroom. She'd open the door to find her in their bed either naked or wearing lingerie, but even that couldn't compare to what she saw when she opened the door that morning. Her wife was sitting up in their bed, wearing a fleece pullover and pajama pants with a matching set laid out for her as well.

"I know it's not quite the negligee I wore last night," Constance smiled at her. "But I have something better for us planned this morning."

Hope looked over at the reading nook near their bedroom window and noticed her wife had set up a cozy place for them complete with a plush blanket and chamomile tea. Although she could have changed into the pajamas herself, she didn't object to her wife helping her.

Constance unhooked her wife's bra and gently tossed it onto the bed. "If they're too sore to be kissed, they're far too sore to be confined by one of those."

"You just want an excuse for me to be braless," Hope smiled at her. She pulled the sweatshirt over her head and checked out their lounging ensembles. "We haven't worn matching pajamas since we were undergraduates. When did you buy these?"

Constance led her wife over to the seating area she had set up for the two of them. "A few days ago," she said nonchalantly. "I knew the window of time in which you'd start to become uncomfortable would coincide with our trip over here. I also bought you some bralettes and shelf tank tops for you to wear under your sweaters. I don't want you wearing anything that's going to feel confining for you. There's new leggings for you, as well."

While sitting down, Hope leaned back against her wife with her cup of chamomile tea in hand. Constance covered the two of them with the blanket and wrapped her arms around Hope from behind before gently caressing Hope's baby bump.

"I love having a wife, especially having _you _as my wife," Hope said, breaking the silence and Constance responded with a delicate kiss on her temple. "I remember when you and I were Jane and Maura's age and everything in our relationship was so new and exciting for us and, as much as I loved you then, that doesn't even compare to how I feel about you now. I love this phase in our lives and this form of intimacy－we're looking out the window at so much life happening out there and there's so much excitement in London and yet all I want is to be in this room and in your arms."

"Pregnancy has made you incredibly sentimental, my Mrs. Isles."

Hope placed her hands on top of her wife's. "This is coming from the woman who, although we've been married for nearly a decade, still says 'my Mrs. Isles' every opportunity she gets because she can't believe we're actually _legally_ married."

"After years of us waiting for it to become legal." Constance added. "Had it been legal when we were in college, you and I would have gotten married at 22."

"Honey, had it been legal, you and I would have eloped at 19."

"What would you do if Maura told us she was getting married?"

Constance had meant it as a joke, but just the thought of it made Hope nearly choke on her chamomile tea. "No," she managed to finally get out. "If she so much as gets a promise ring from Jane, she's grounded. She's _our _little girl and I'm not ready to give her up. I know I say Jane is our future daughter-in-law, but I'm referring to the _distant _future. Maura can get married when she's 30. Better yet, she can get married when she's 40."

Constance held her wife even closer. "As overbearing as you may be sometimes, our children are so fortunate to have you. Now, rest up, because you have dinner plans at a pub tonight with two incredibly energetic teenagers and, tomorrow, we're spending the morning with Victoria. Needless to say, because your body is currently creating our Isles twins, you, my love, have to do all of this without any wine in your system."

* * *

After picking up gifts for her family, it was time for Jane to accept her fate－she had to get something to wear. Shopping with her mom was tedious. She'd always end up trying on dresses she had no intention of ever buying for the sake of appeasing her mom. Shopping with her best friend Coral was more tolerable as they had a similar sense of style and body type and, if something fit Coral, Jane knew it would fit her, too.

"I already have black pants," Jane told Maura. "Can I just get a sweater and we'll be on our way?"

Jane and Maura walked hand-in-hand as they looked at the window displays of different shops. The streets lined with Christmas decorations reminded Maura of all the times she spent exploring the city with her family during the holiday season. When she became a teenager, she'd notice all of the happy couples and she longed to experience love and romance amidst the lights of London. She imagined holding hands with some sophisticated young woman with a London accent and dressed head to toe in designer clothing, but when she looked at the tomboy Boston native next to her in low-top Converse and a BCU softball hoodie, she realized she couldn't imagine herself with anybody else.

"My grandparents' holiday party is formal," Maura reminded her. "We can get a white button up shirt and red tie to match my dress."

"A tie?" Jane groaned. "I have to wear a tie? Maura, why can't your grandparents just have an ugly sweater party like normal people?"

"You've met my grandmother," Maura reminded her. "Does she seem like a woman who would attend an ugly sweater party?"

"She doesn't seem like someone who would celebrate Christmas at all."

Maura stopped her girlfriend in her tracks so she could give her a kiss. "You don't _have to_ wear a tie. I just think you'd look sexy. After the party, I want you wearing only your tie and the gift I bought you."

Jane pulled Maura into her. "I've been a terrible girlfriend," she said in between kissing her. "I feel like I've kept you waiting for so long."

Maura felt a tightening sensation between her legs. "We can find a place right now."

Jane pulled back. "Really, Maura?" she asked in disbelief. "Have you seen that show _Locked Up Abroad_? But instead of drug smuggling, we'll be locked up for having sex in a park or something. And then your parents or your grandparents would have to bail us out. And we'd have to explain we got arrested because we couldn't keep it in our pants and then they'd call my mom and I can already hear her lecturing me. Maura, it'd be less embarrassing if we got arrested for actual drug smuggling."

Maura placed her hands on her girlfriend's shoulders. "Jane, we won't have sex in a public place, but I _do _plan on relieving your tension tonight. It's been three weeks and I don't plan on holding back anymore."

They found a shirt and tie for Jane in slightly over an hour and Maura was pleased with how cooperative her girlfriend was. _I'll make sure to reward her for this._

* * *

When Maura purchased their tickets online for the London Eye, she chose the time that would correlate with the sun going down and the city lights going on. As the next day would be their last full day in the city, Maura felt as if it were the perfect way for Jane to take in the sights. She remembered the first time she rode the London Eye－she was four years old and her mother held her the entire time and pointed out the different landmarks to her. It was a cold winter day, but little Maura felt so warm and loved in her mother's arms. Four-year-old Maura couldn't quite understand why at the time, but she noticed other couples kissing or holding hands while her mothers never felt comfortable kissing or being affectionate in public with each other. While standing in line with Jane, she looked down at their hands and how the two of them had their fingers laced with each others as they did whenever they were out in public and it dawned on her that her parents (and other same-sex couples of that generation) didn't have the luxury of being affectionate with each other in public when they were young. With that thought in mind, Maura decided to cling to Jane and rest her head on her shoulder.

"What's this for?" Jane asked playfully. "Don't tell me you're afraid."

"I'm just grateful I could be _out_ with you."

They were nearing their time slot for the London Eye when both Jane and Maura received notifications on their phones. "It could be your parents or your grandma," Jane pointed out. "We should probably check."

Maura looked at the notification on her screen. "It's an email from BCU."

Jane put her phone back in her pocket. "Our grades are up."

"Should we check?"

"No," Jane responded. "If we check right now and our grades aren't that good, it'll ruin our day, but if we wait until tonight, I'll have a naked girlfriend to either console me or celebrate with me." Jane noticed Maura absentmindedly scroll through an app on her phone. "You can't wait, can you?"

"...I can wait."

Jane moved her girlfriend's hair behind her shoulder and gently inspected her neck. "You're breaking out in hives, Maura. How about if we look at one grade? Just one and then we're not checking the others until tonight. Deal?"

Without responding, Maura checked the first available grade. "I'll check Into to Biology."

"That's gonna be an A," Jane smiled at her. "My first is Early American History...A. Nice!"

"I got an A in biology!" Maura said excitedly. "Can we check one more?"

Jane nervously bit her lip. "...okay. Maybe we're on a roll. Elementary Italian...A. Benissimo!"

"Advanced French...A," Maura read out loud.

"Intro to Psychology...A."

"Computer Science...A"

"Freshman Composition...A!" Jane said excitedly. "Okay, let's keep going. I only have one more after this. Your turn, Maur."

"I got an A in Statistics," Maura said proudly. "Professor Stevens rarely gives students an A."

Jane playfully lifted her up. "That's my girl! I knew you could do it. Ready for the last one?" She checked her phone once she put Maura down. "Okay, my last class is your mother's class. How awkward would it be if she failed me and we're on vacation together?"

"Jane, she's not going to fail you."

"Because she likes me and wants me to be a member of the family?"

"No," Maura said matter-of-factly.

"No?" Jane tried not to be offended.

"She _does _like you, but that's not why she's going to pass you. She's going to pass you because you're a good student," Maura gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Check your last grade. You're one A away from a 4.0, which rarely happens the first semester of freshman year. Most freshmen go through an adjustment period that affects their GPA."

"Just to be safe, maybe you should give me a good luck kiss."

Maura playfully pounced on Jane. Without caring who might have been watching, she gave her a series of quick kisses followed by one long kiss for extra luck. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

"Okay, here goes." Jane clicked on the link for her Intro to Art History class grade. "I got an A! I got an A! Thank you, Professor Isles. Maura, I'm buying your mother a drink tonight."

Maura squeezed Jane's hand. "You got a 4.0! My girlfriend is a 4.0 student. You can join the Honors Program now."

"Mine is, too. Or, at least my girlfriend will be a 4.0 student once she checks her last grade. You got an A, Maura. I know it."

"It's my turn for Freshman Composition," Maura smiled nervously. "Okay, I'm going to click on the link." She debated closing her eyes while the page loaded, but before she could make up her mind, she saw the letter C displayed on the screen. Without saying another word, she put her phone in her purse. "We're going to see London from 443 feet up. Are you excited?"

"Yes, but first I want to know what happened and, keep in mind, you'll break out in hives again if you lie and I know you don't want hives in the pictures you're gonna post."

Maura looked down at her shoes. "I got a C. I've never gotten a C before. Jane, I failed."

Jane held her close, her hands caressing Maura's back. "You didn't fail. A C is not a failing grade."

"It is for me."

"A C is average, not failing. You're my _average_ genius." But Jane's attempt to cheer her up failed. "What's your GPA? You had five classes and got an A in four of those classes. One C isn't going to tank your GPA."

"3.6," Maura said sheepishly.

"3.6?" Jane asked. "Maura, you just need a 3.5 to get into the Honors Program. We can both take Honors classes next semester and a C in Freshman Composition isn't going to affect you getting into medical school. When you apply for medical school, they're mainly going to look at your science classes and maybe your math classes. Plus, there's your MCAT score. One C in Freshman Comp doesn't mean your life is over."

"Have you picked your major?" Maura asked in an attempt at changing the subject.

"You sound like my mother," Jane groaned. "And, no, I haven't picked my major yet. I have until the start of my sophomore year to declare it. Maybe me being undeclared will help you feel better about yourself. Yes, you got a C, but at least you've already picked your major."

"I've declared my major and I know I want to go to medical school, but I don't know what I want to specialize in. I'm falling behind, Jane," Maura tried to keep herself from hyperventilating. "My mom knew when she was in high school."

Jane cupped Maura's face in her hands. "Okay, maybe she did, but your mother didn't know she wanted to be a professor until she was already in graduate school. Everyone figures things out in their own time. It's not a race, Maura. First you finish your Bachelor's degree, then you get to medical school, then you pick what you want to specialize in. For right now, all you have to do is enjoy being eighteen. I don't mean to get all sentimental or anything, but we're never gonna be this young again and, the older we get, the more the responsibilities will pile on. Let's just enjoy the here and now. I mean, look where we are." Jane pointed up at the London Eye. "We're about to get on this big ass ferris wheel."

"It is a...big ass ferris wheel," Maura said, struggling to use Jane's terminology. "Thank you for making me feel better."

* * *

From the moment they got on the London Eye, Jane started taking pictures of her girlfriend against the backdrop of the city. Just four short months ago, she had told her best friend that she wasn't ready for a relationship and then Maura unexpectedly came into her life just hours later. The girl she worried would be just a one-night stand or a casual fling had become the girl she knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with...even if they weren't quite ready for the rest of their lives to start in that moment.

Jane put her hand in her pocket to double check that the ring was still there. It was a gold band with both of their birthstones in the shape of a heart. Jane knew it was nowhere near extravagant, but as a college freshman on a budget, all she could afford was what she earned during that night she "modelled" at the clothing store. Her original intention was to give it to Maura for Christmas, but the thought of Maura's entire family being there as placed the ring on her finger scared her to death, so she placed it in her pocket that morning and waited for the perfect opportunity to give it to Maura.

The city lights had started to go on and, although Jane wanted nothing more than to live in the moment, she couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of the skyline to show to her friends and family back home. This wasn't Maura's first time on the London Eye, but Jane couldn't help noticing how the view still mesmerized her and while Maura was looking at the lights of London, Jane was busy looking at _her_.

"Take a selfie with me," Maura insisted. She had looked away just long enough to notice Jane focusing on her.

"For the 'gram?" Jane joked with her. "I know something that will make it even better, though."

Jane was face to face with her girlfriend and, unlike she had expected, there was no tinge of nervousness. As beautiful as the view was, nothing compared to the girl standing in front of her. She pulled out the ring from her pocket and reached for Maura's hand.

"Jane, is this－"

"I know we're too young to be engaged, so this isn't me proposing, but we're not too young for me to promise that I'm always going to love you," Jane said as she slipped the ring on Maura's finger. "...even if you _are _just an average genius and our freshman comp grades confirm my intellectual dominance."

"Jane," Maura laughed.

"See? Your grade isn't the end of the world." Jane playfully lifted her up. "There's so much for us to look forward to and I want to be by your side throughout everything, Doctor Isles."

Maura held on tightly as Jane spun them around. "...or maybe Doctor Rizzoli by then?"

"Can you imagine my mom, your mom, and your grandma Victoria planning our wedding?" Jane laughed. "Even if I've always wanted a wedding at Fenway, promise me we'll just elope."

Jane knew between the Rizzoli family, the Martin family, and the Isles family, there was no way the two of them would ever be able to elope and Grandma Victoria would probably plan a wedding for them so extravagant that Jane wouldn't be able to fathom the amount of money that went into it. Even if she'd have to deal with the women in their family taking over the wedding, Jane knew it would be worth it just to see Maura in a wedding dress.

"...we're like eight years away from marriage," Jane told her. "But, do you wanna do something fun?"

"I don't like that look on your face."

"Hear me out," Jane grinned. "We're going to take a selfie of the two of us and you're going to show off your ring."

"I already intended to show off my ring in a selfie of the two of us. I want to post it."

"Yes, but first I'm going to send that same picture to my mom with a text saying, '_Look, Ma. We decided to get married here in London._'"

With the London skyline behind them, Jane snapped a picture of herself kissing Maura on the cheek while Maura showed off her ring to the camera. It may have been just a promise ring, but with it came a promise Jane knew she was going to keep. She was going to love her Maura forever.

"_Jane Clementine Rizzoli! We need to talk NOW!" _Jane looked at the notification of a text message from her mother, followed by a message from Hope that read, "_Maura Dorthea Martin Isles, I want you and Jane to get back to the house now. I don't care if you're eighteen, you two are in big trouble._" A minute later, a follow up message came in from Angela saying, "_You have my permission to punish my daughter, Hope."_

Maura looked at her, confused. "Jane, why are these messages also coming through on my phone and why is my mom also responding?" She entered her pin and read the messages. "You sent the pic to the group chat my mom made to communicate the trip plans with you and your mom. Jane, you sent it to the wrong conversation. We need to fix this!"

Jane grabbed Maura's phone from her hand and put both of their phones in Maura's purse. "If they think we got married, we're dead. If we tell them it's a joke, we're also dead," Jane pointed out. "For now, let's just put our phones away and enjoy the view."


	9. Boomers and Gen Z vs Gen X

**A/N: Hi, everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates over the past three months, but I hope this lighthearted chapter makes up for it. As always, feel free to let me know if there's anything you want included in future chapters. Thanks for reading. :)**

While holding her girlfriend's hand tighter than ever before, Maura reluctantly climbed the front steps to her grandparents' house. As a child, Maura never refused to put her toys away or said no to her parents and, as a teenager, she had perfect grades and never rebelled against them in any way. It wasn't until she and Jane started dating that Maura experienced her mom yelling at her for the first time. The way her parents met Jane for the first time wasn't ideal. Being drunk with her underwear on the rug and in a rather compromising position with Jane wasn't how she had planned on introducing her girlfriend to her parents and the way Hope yelled at her made her feel as if she'd be forbidden to see Jane ever again. Although she couldn't hear Hope's reaction via text, the messages conveyed that same tone she had the night she caught the two of them in the living room.

Jane turned around and smiled at Maura who was still one step behind. "Everything's gonna be okay. We just have to maintain a strong, united front. It was a joke, Maura."

Maura gave her a half-smile. "That's easy for you to say when your parents aren't here."

Jane playfully kissed her while Maura nervously fumbled with putting the key in lock. "No matter what, I'm still going to love you. Besides, we're eighteen now. We're adults. We're grown women and we're gonna go in there and demand to be treated as such."

"You're right," Maura smiled at her, the sight of Jane dimples making her feel even more at ease. "As adults, we deserve respect and we deserve to be treated as their equals."

Maura opened the front door and led Jane to the living room, feeling confident and ready to assert herself as the adult that she was...until she saw her mom sitting on the sofa with her arms crossed.

"Sit!" She ordered Jane and Maura.

And with a single word, Jane and Maura abandoned the idea of demanding to be treated as adults. The girls sheepishly walked over to the loveseat across from where her parents were sitting and sat down on opposite sides, afraid to even hold each other's hand.

Maura looked at the coffee table that stood in between the sofa and the loveseat－the only piece of furniture protecting her from the wrath of her mom. On top of the coffee table, was her mom's iPad standing upright, faced away from Jane and Maura. _Had they been watching a movie before we got here? _Maura quickly dismissed that thought and grabbed Jane's hand, knowing what was now in store for them. She gave her girlfriend a worried look as if to tell her to brace herself before her mom turned the iPad around to face them.

Jane clutched the arm of the sofa with her free hand and sat as far back as she could, gritting her teeth in absolute fear. "Ma!"

Her voice and image may have been coming through a video call, but for Jane, the fear was as if she were right in the room with them. "Jane Clementine Rizzoli," Angela said sternly. "Don't think being on another continent means you're getting away with this."

"Damn technology," Maura heard Jane mutter under her breath.

"You girls have pushed the limit with us for months now," Hope said sternly. "I think the three of us have put up with so much from the two of you and we've been nothing but lenient, but you two have really outdone yourselves this time."

"I'm sorry Mrs. Isles...ma'am," Jane said nervously. "It－it was a joke. Maura and I really didn't get married."

"We know you didn't," Constance responded for her wife. "As neither of you are citizens of this country, you would have needed a marriage visa and we know you didn't apply for one."

"This isn't about the two of you getting married or not getting married," Angela insisted. "This is about you girls wanting the privileges of being grown ups, but not accepting any responsibility for your actions. You two think you can just get away with anything. If you two want to be treated like adults so badly, we're going to make sure that happens.."

"I－I don't want to be an adult," Jane stammered.

"Me neither," Maura added. Just moments ago she was ready to be assertive, but even without knowing what her parents and Angela had in store for them, she knew it'd be in her best interest to remain a kid.

"Okay, that means no more sharing a bed," Hope told her daughter. "I think the three of us are okay with that."

"No!" Maura said a little louder than she had hoped.

"Marriage and adult relationships are about more than sharing a bed with someone," Constance began. "Adult relationships are about sharing responsibilities and building a life together. There's a mortgage to pay and daily responsibilities like cooking－"

"You two don't have a mortgage. Grandmother and Grandfather bought our house," Maura interrupted. "And, Mother, you don't cook. We use UberEats or Door Dash everyday because the last time you cooked, the kitchen almost caught on fire. You told me not to tell Mom." Maura put her hand to her mouth when she realized the secret she had just revealed. "I'm sorry."

"Maura Dorthea!" Hope tried not to laugh. Once she felt herself losing her composure, she straightened up and pursed her lips to stop herself from smiling. "Because you're both adults now－" Hope began once she knew she could be serious again. "The three of us feel as if you should arrange for your own housing next year."

"We're not paying for you to live in the Kappa Gamma Phi house," Constance told her daughter. "If you want to remain in the sorority, you'll be responsible for your own dues. Living in a sorority house costs $10,000 per school year. Your mom and I will expect you to pay for that yourself."

"And your tuition is only free because your mother is a faculty member," Hope pointed out. "If she chooses to opt out of that benefit, our combined income won't allow for you to qualify for any grants." Hope turned to her wife. "Connie, remind our daughter what BCU tuition is at now."

"Maura, you'd be $250,000 in debt after graduation," Constance told her daughter. "That's only for your undergraduate education. Medical school tuition is even higher."

Maura knew medical school would double the amount of debt she'd be in and the thought of being in debt for half a million dollars in her twenties made her head spin.

"I have a free ride," Jane reminded her mom. "You can't threaten me with not paying my tuition."

"Maybe not," Angela told her. "But your father and I are going to stop paying for the maintenance on your car and giving you gas money and...and－I mean it Jane Rizzoli－you are going to start covering all of your own expenses"

Before Jane could respond, they heard the sound of the front door open. "Girls!" Victoria Isles called out. "What's all the commotion? I can hear you from outside." She set her shopping bags down upon entering the living room and looked at her daughter. "Are you yelling at my Maura?"

"We're trying to teach our daughter a lesson," Constance responded, coldly.

"What lesson is there to teach at eighteen?" Victoria snickered. "This is when being a mother is supposed to be fun. They're not little girls that you have to watch all day. They're young women now and you should just enjoy their company. Oh, and girls, I bought a couple of gifts for you when I was out this morning."

Maura looked at the Burberry shopping bag that her grandmother had sat down on the floor. "Is that…"

"The scarf you've been wanting?" Victoria smiled at her. "Of course it is. And Jane, Maura told me you don't like shopping, so I had my stylist pick out a sweater for you. You'll look absolutely stunning and Maura is going to love it on you."

"Thank you, Grandma!" Maura said excitedly.

"Thank you, Mrs. Isles," Jane added.

"You're welcome," Victoria responded. "And, Jane, as I've said before, you don't have to call me Mrs. Isles. I'm not like my daughter. You can call me Victoria."

"No, she can't," they heard Angela respond from Hope's iPad. "I didn't raise my daughter to call adults by their first names."

Victoria made her way over to where Jane and Maura were sitting so she could see Angela on the screen. "With all due respect, your daughter _is _an adult. You three can't expect Jane and Maura to switch back and forth from children to adults whenever it benefits the three of you and, while we're being expected to blindly obey the rules of those older than us, keep in mind that _I _am your elder and going against what I say is terribly disrespectful. I have a phone call to make. Jane and Maura, you girls let me know if you need anything."

With her grandmother now in another room, Maura worried that she and Jane would once again be at the mercy of their parents.

"There's another thing we'd like to add to the list of changes to be made Maura Dorthea," Hope started to say the moment Victoria left the room. "We've decided to curb your shoe shopping."

"No!" Maura shouted out.

"You have more than enough," Constance told her. "The money that you would typically spend on shoes and clothes will now be put into a savings account that you can only touch if there's an emergency."

It was in that moment that Maura realized her parents had gone too far. They could take away her tuition; They could take away her sorority, but she'd be damned if they took away her shoe shopping.

She wanted to ask how they could do that to her－how they could resort to this cruel and unusual punishment－but she couldn't get the words to come out of her mouth. Instead, the tears started flowing and the sight of her crying was all that Jane could take.

Jane scooted herself over on the couch so she could hold Maura. "It's gonna be okay," she whispered before giving Maura a kiss on the forehead. "I love you so much. They don't like that we played the greatest possible joke on them so now they're playing one on us."

No longer than two minutes after Maura started crying, Victoria came rushing back into the living room, this time with her iPad in hand. She gingerly set hers down on the coffee table, next to Hope's. "I brought some reinforcement this time." Not wanting to get in between her daughter and her daughter-in-law, Victoria sat down on one of the accent chairs near Jane and Maura. "She turned the iPad to face Jane and Maura. "Judith, look what they did to our granddaughter."

"Is she crying?" Grandma Martin asked angrily. "Hope Elizabeth Martin! What did you say to that poor girl?"

"Mom?" Hope asked. Out of fear, she immediately reached for her wife's hand. "This doesn't concern you."

"Your father is calling me," Angela said to Jane. "I better go."

"Angela?" Judy asked. "Angela, is that you? I didn't know Jane was your daughter."

"You know my mom?" Jane asked in disbelief.

"I remember when your mom was a teenager and the things she'd get up to. Your grandma and I grew up together. We were best friends all throughout high school," Judy informed Jane. "It's a shame we lost touch over the years. I wonder if her phone number is still the same so I could call her. Wait, I have a better idea! Jane, why don't you give her a call and we can see what she has to say about all of this? How does that sound, Angela?"

"Frank, I'll be right there!" they heard Angela shout. She had turned her head as if she were looking at the doorway, but Maura had been to the Rizzoli house enough times to know that she wasn't even looking in the right direction. "I have to go, but you better behave, Janie. You just used your only get out of jail free card."

Once Angela had logged off, Victoria looked at her granddaughter resting her head on Jane's shoulder. "Judy, look how adorable they are. Remember when our daughters were this cute?"

"Oh, Vicky, you're just saying that because you had the luxury of being an entire ocean away from these girls when they were in college," Judy laughed. "Our daughters were hellions compared to Jane and Maura."

"Hellions?" Maura smiled for the first time during that conversation. Her mom had always told her that she was incredibly focused on her schoolwork and rarely went to parties and her mother had focused on her artwork and sorority activities, but there was never any mention of the two of them getting into any trouble. The thought of her parents once being _normal_ instead of two perfectly polished women at the top of their field in their respective careers was beyond belief for Maura.

"We were perfectly well-behaved," Constance said in their defense. "Hope and I never－"

"Oh, don't even try it," Victoria laughed. "Once you moved to Boston, I hadn't the slightest clue what was happening in your life. Did you already forget that little stunt that almost got you expelled from BCU?"

"You were almost expelled?" Maura asked in disbelief.

"Maura, I think you are officially off the hook if you ever get a bad grade," Jane laughed.

"It wasn't because of grades or my behavior," Constance said in her own defense. "I was going to be expelled because of censorship."

"Maura, when your mother was nineteen, she was this brooding artist who loved to push the envelope," Victoria began. "The art work she entered was a piece she called '_Girlhood: Uncensored' _and it was complete and utter filth. I can't－"

"It wasn't filth," Constance interrupted. "It was about the affect sexual assault has on the lives of young girls. There were depictions of eating disorders, promiscuity, drug use, low self-esteem. self-mutilation－"

"Regardless, it worked to your advantage that, even if administration was against it, the art department was behind you," Victoria said, brushing off her daughter's argument. "Your father and I later found out that the Women's Studies department, the Sociology department, as well as a considerable amount of the study body thought you had made a very important statement. I didn't know whether to punish you or be proud of you."

Hope squeezed her wife's hand. "I was definitely proud of her."

"Victoria, no matter what, I can always one-up you in this subject," Judy said, bringing everyone back to the conversation's original intent. "My daughter got knocked up in high school."

Hope covered her face. "Oh, Mom," she groaned.

"Yes, Hope may have gotten pregnant at seventeen, but at least your daughter's pregnancy led to our granddaughter being born. The stunts my daughter pulled were out of pure teenage idiocy," Victoria pointed out. "She had no excuse. I remember when she came home the day after she and Hope became a couple. She refused to take her scarf off although we had the heater and the fireplace on. Later that evening, she passed out from overheating and, when we took her to the A&E, the doctor took off her scarf and I had the fright of my life when I saw her neck. I thought my dear girl was seriously ill until I was informed what the dark marks on her neck were. They weren't a symptom of some terrible illness. They were the result of her new girlfriend."

"Mom!" Maura glared at her. "_You_ said it was improper when I left a lipstick print on Jane's cheek."

"Hope Elizabeth!" Victoria joined in. "I'd rather Maura leave a million lipstick prints on Jane than even be in the same room as Garrett."

"You know what, Vicky? I completely agree," Judy added. "I remember the kind of boys my daughter dated in high school. One particularly greasy-haired grunge musician, she ended up conceiving a child with. And then a few months later, Constance came into her life looking like a cross between a Disney princess and a Playboy bunny. My daughter may have been a goner from the moment your daughter smiled at her and, yes, Hope's IQ might have been cut in half every time Constance showed even the slightest bit of skin, but there is no one in this world I'd rather my little girl spend the rest of her life with."

"And there's no one else I'd rather _my _little girl be with," Victoria agreed. "But I have a really good one for you－perhaps the best one of all. Remember our daughters and the infamous mistletoe incident?"

"The one that happened two years ago?" Judy laughed.

"A married couple kissing under the mistletoe isn't a big deal," Jane brought to their attention.

"You sweet, innocent girl," Victoria shook her head. "This mistletoe was strategically－"

"_All right_, Mother!" Constance interrupted. She stood up from the sofa and straightened out her black dress. "Hope, darling, would you care to join me upstairs? I want to change into something more comfortable before we're forced to take these two girls to some god awful pub with greasy food and wine that tastes like rubbing alcohol."

"I knew that'd be the one to break them," Judy said once Victoria had given her the signal that their daughters were no longer in the room.

Victoria gently rubbed Maura's shoulder. "Nobody and I do mean absolutely _nobody_ messes with our granddaughter. Had they stopped covering your tuition, your grandfather and I would have paid it for you."

"Thank you," Maura responded. "Both of you."

"Your moms love you very much," Judy reassured her. "They just sometimes need to be reminded that it wasn't long ago when they were two crazy kids who would do anything just for another five minutes with each other."

* * *

Remembering the infamous mistletoe incident that Victoria had brought up, Hope made it a point to lock the door behind them after they had entered the bedroom. Her wife was sifting through the clothes she had brought from Boston. Their family was only to stay in London for three days, but Constance had carefully folded or hung up every article of clothing she had brought with her and arranged everything depending on the occasion in which she would wear it. _I can see where Maura gets it from. _Hope looked down at the shelf in the closet which her wife had neatly arranged the ten pairs of shoes she had brought for their ten day trip. _And this explains Maura's shoe obsession. _

"Do you remember when our friends would sleep over in college and we'd play Truth or Dare?" Hope asked.

"I hated that game. It never ended well for me," Constance recalled as she attempted to decide between black Manolo Blahnik flats or T-strap YSL stiletto sandals.

"The flats," Hope insisted. "Remember where we're going. And it was Never Have I Ever that didn't end well for you. You fared well in Truth or Dare."

Constance returned the sandals to their designated place in the closet and set the flats aside. "This conversation is starting to make me nervous."

"Truth or dare?"

"Neither," Constance responded. "We've known each other for almost twenty years, so there's no interesting question you can ask me if I choose truth and, if I choose dare, the most you can do is dare me to do something sexual with the woman I'm married to."

"When did you stop being fun?"

Constance turned around and smiled at her. "I was never fun. You were just amorous. You still are."

"You're trying to deflect my question."

Too upset to continue picking out what she was going to wear, Constance sat next to her wife on the bed. "Can you believe the nerve of Victoria? You and I would never do anything to make our daughter's life difficult. Everything we said to Maura was an empty threat. I would never opt out of covering her tuition."

"You don't see it, do you?" Hope asked as she caressed her wife's back. "Victoria was a terrible mother and, because she knows it's going to be hard to mend her relationship with you, she feels as if she can start fresh with her grandchildren. It's fairly common in mother/daughter relationships. The only difference is that Victoria is a bit extreme. Besides, she and my mom only know the tip of the iceberg of what we did in college. The most interesting things are just between you and me and, if you want a passive aggressive way to get back at her, all you have to do is play truth or dare with me."

"I know you have something in mind, so just tell me what it is," Constance insisted. "You don't have to disguise it as Truth or Dare and hope I choose your desired outcome."

"Fine," Hope quickly kissed her wife before getting off the bed. "I'll be right back."

Judging by the sound of Jane and Maura talking downstairs about something they saw on a social media app, Hope knew their room would be empty, so she let herself in without knocking. Not wanting to keep her wife waiting long, she frantically sifted through a chest of drawers Constance had for storing clothes and accessories from her teenage years that she had no intention of wearing again but didn't have the heart to get rid of. It was in one of those drawers that Hope found her intended items: an old Bikini Kill t-shirt that Constance had bought when she was fifteen and a pair of black low-top Converse sneakers.

With a devious smile on her face, Hope set the t-shirt and shoes on top of the bed. "Remember, you can't say no to a dare."

"No and absolutely not," Constance remarked, her gaze fixed upon the items her wife had managed to find. "Also, I'm surprised you didn't bring a scrunchie."

"The scrunchie is optional," Hope teased. "But these two items are the perfect passive aggressive way to get back at your mother for this afternoon. The image-obsessed Victoria will lose her mind and I can help you dress it up. You can wear a fitted black blazer over the t-shirt and a nice pair of dark jeans. Besides, you'll look ridiculous if you wear designer shoes instead of Converse with this outfit."

Constance crossed her arms and looked straight ahead at her wife. "I still refuse to wear this."

"Even if it's for the woman you love?"

"No."

"Even if it means it's now your turn to dare me to do something and you have from now until our last day in England to determine what that dare is and I absolutely cannot refuse to do it?"

"Fine."

Hope sat on their bed and watched as her wife delicately took off the black dress she was wearing to reveal a matching black lace lingerie set. "As much as I love that on you, you don't have to look like you're in a Victoria's Secret catalogue every time you undress. You can wear something comfortable and I'd be just as attracted to you."

"This is what I've grown accustomed to. It's comfortable for me now."

"It's not," Hope insisted. "Name one woman other than you who would choose to wear the cheeky lacy underwear that you have on instead of cotton?"

"Name one husband or wife who wouldn't prefer that she did?" Constance responded.

Remembering the performed femininity and need to be perfect that had been instilled in her wife since she was a young girl, Hope knew it would be best to take the conversation in a more lighthearted direction. "I don't care if your underwear is cotton or lace. I just care that you let me take them off of you. Also, Connie, you don't have to get waxed every three weeks. As a doctor, I've told you countless times that it's bad for you to wax off the hair that's meant to protect your vulva from infection and, as your wife, I actually think it's sexier and so _womanly_ when you have something there. I don't want you to literally have hair ripped from one of the most sensitive parts of your body just because you think it makes you more sexually appealing to me."

Constance gave her wife an endearing smile and the non-verbal expression was enough to make Hope feel that, even if she hadn't gotten through to her, Constance was at least grateful for what she said.

Her wife was now clad in a t-shirt from her younger days and it made Hope laugh when she saw the expression on her face. "How did I used to dress like this?"

"I'm sorry for daring you to do this," Hope laughed. "But you look cute."

Constance tugged at the hem, trying in vain to make the t-shirt longer. "I'm glad you find this so amusing. This looked so much longer when I was an A-cup." She gave it one final tug before giving up. "You're not getting away with this, Hope. Just wait for your dare."

Hope wanted to ask her wife about the artwork Victoria had brought up earlier. She remembered when Constance was working on that piece and the countless hours she had put into it. Hope wanted to apologize to her for not noticing the signs that were right in front of her－that the young girl she depicted could possibly be her－but when she heard Constance laugh at the sight of herself in the mirror wearing an old t-shirt, jeans, and Converse, she decided it wasn't the right time. That conversation would have to wait. For the rest of the evening, she wanted her wife to put her past aside and enjoy herself.


End file.
